Mutual Attraction
by FandomObsessedGirl1
Summary: "You cheated on you wife!" she snarled "with me!" "It's not like that, Teresa" he tried to explain "I'm married, but I'm not married married" After consulting for the CBI on one case (and sleeping with Lisbon), Jane is offered a permanent job. Lisbon is furious, but for how long can she ignore her attraction? Especially when Jane makes it very clear how much he wants her.
1. Chapter 1

**Welcome! So, just to set the scene for this fic: Jane and Angela don't have a child, Jane didn't go on the talk show and annoy Red John, Van Pelt has already joined the CBI…the rest should be pretty much the same** **Oh, and Jane is still a bit of an arse…**

 **Anyway please read and tell me what you think. I'm not planning on making this a hugely long fic (probably around 10 chapters?), and if anyone is interested I have another nearly finished one up called 'Mistake'.**

"Lisbon, take a seat"

Teresa Lisbon settled herself on the couch in Minelli's office, still trying to determine why she had been called there. She'd updated him yesterday on their current cases, and she was sure that if any of her team were leaving they would have alerted her first.

"I assume you remember Patrick Jane?"

How could she forget? The conman who had been requested by some high-up to consult on a case for them a month ago wasn't the sort of person one would forget easily. Especially not her.

"Was there a problem with the case in court? Or another complaint?" Lisbon guessed.

"No no, nothing like that" Minelli waved his hand in the air to dispel her predictions "I have good news, actually"

Lisbon raised her eyebrows. Even from the two weeks she had spent with Jane, she knew that 'Patrick Jane' and 'good news' were two phrases which rarely came up in the same context.

"Given how case closed rates have been recently, and with Red John still at large" he paused, and Lisbon looked at the floor. Red John had been assigned to her team a year ago, and they had got nowhere in that time "I decided to offer Mr Jane a job, working as a full time consultant for the CBI"

"He would never-"

"And he accepted" Minelli continued, cutting her off "said he'd been meaning to get out of the psychic scene for a while now, how he'd loved the pace and excitement of police work yada yada yada"

Lisbon's expression hardened. Of course it was the 'pace and excitement' of the work he had enjoyed. Nothing about being able to piss people off on a daily basis and laze around whilst the rest of the team did the work.

"Anyway, he said that he only had one condition for accepting the job: that he could work on your team"

Minelli passed a file over the desk to her and she took it, slightly dazed. She opened it and scanned her eyes over the paper.

"That's his file" Minelli explained "nothing of particular interest, but keep it with the others"

"There's a mistake here" Lisbon said, frowning as her eyes passed a particular section "it says he's married – Jane isn't married"

"Did he tell you that?"

"Well no, but-"

"He definitely is married" Minelli told her "to some model woman, Angela something"

 _The lying bastard_ , Lisbon thought to herself.

"Boss, do we really need him? I know we haven't got Red John yet but-"

"I know he's a little difficult to work with, Agent" Minelli conceded.

"A _little_ " Lisbon muttered under he breath.

"But he has a skill set that we'd be hard pressed to find anywhere else"

"But Boss-" Lisbon protested.

"He'll be at your office at 9am tomorrow morning" Minelli told her firmly "now I'm meant to be in the AG's office in half an hour, shoo"

Lisbon left her boss's office in a bad mood. From what she had seen on that one case, Jane was good. Really good. But a whole lot of hard work – something she really didn't need any more of. That however, wasn't what had managed to make her mood drop so drastically.

When Lisbon had first met Patrick Jane, her first thought was that he was one of the most attractive men she had ever met. Then he opened his mouth and the words 'egotistical' and 'arse' quickly joined her description of him. However, she agreed to work with him for the case for the sake of catching the killer of some important lawyer's son. His insights proved to be invaluable to their eventual arrest, and without his crazy plan to catch the killer, the case would have lasted a lot longer than two weeks.

For the whole time they had worked together, the conflict between them was visible to all. They didn't go a single day without arguing, and Jane seemed to take a little too much pleasure in pissing Lisbon off. Of course, beneath all of that there was the inescapable fact that there was a huge amount of sexual tension between them. Although she would never admit it out loud, Lisbon felt the familiar excitement run around her body her whenever he brushed past her or placed his hand on the small of her back to direct her. Jane couldn't deny the way his eyes were drawn to her whenever he came into a room. For two weeks they managed to pass the sexual tension off as clashing personalities and Lisbon's dislike of Jane.

They had had to drive down to Los Angeles to apprehend their killer (who had attempted to flee), and stay the night in a motel because it was too late to drive back the same day. Later that evening, once they had shared a 'case closed pizza' and retired to their bedrooms, Jane appeared at Lisbon's door. She couldn't remember entirely how they had gone from arguing about his detective methods to devouring each other's mouths whilst they hurriedly undressed, but it had happened. The next morning he had already left when she awoke, and on the drive back neither gave any hint of untoward happenings between them.

Lisbon hadn't regretted it, but she had been more relived than anything when she said goodbye to him at the CBI building the following day, expecting never to see him again. It was nothing more than a one-night-stand. Until, that was, Minelli had announced that Patrick Jane would be joining their team on a permanent basis earlier that afternoon. She was apprehensive about working with him again, given how they had ended up last time, and then she had opened that file and discovered that he was a married man. She was certain that he hadn't worn a wedding ring at any point during the case, and not once had he mentioned his wife, so she had simply understood that he didn't have one. So much for that assumption.

Back in the safety of her office, Lisbon flicked on her computer and opened up the internet. Maybe Jane and his wife were estranged, or in the process of divorce. That was the only possible explanation for his willingness to break such important vows.

It took Lisbon less than a minute to find an article on Jane's wife, Angela Ruskin. She was utterly beautiful, with a tall, slim figure and long wavy blond hair. Lisbon clicked on another link which was about some Gala she had attended a few weeks ago. There was a picture of her and Jane in this one, he had his arm around her waist and he seemed to be whispering something in her ear. So much for estranged then. How could Jane have slept with her when he had this beautiful wife? What furthermore did he even see in her, Lisbon, if this goddess-like creature was what he was used to?

oooooooooooooooooooo

When Lisbon arrived at work the following morning at 7:45, she wasn't expecting to find Patrick Jane sitting on the couch in her office.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded "scratch that, how are you even in here? I lock my office door"

"You know, for an agency which deals with some fairly high profile cases, the CBI could invest a little more in locks which weren't so easy to pick" he shrugged "but it's nice to see you too, Teresa"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Minelli told me to come to your office, I know I'm a little early but I suspected you'd be here about now"

"No, why are you working for the CBI? What about that psychic nonsense?"

"It was getting boring" he shrugged again "Is something the matter? You're being rather short with me"

"I'm being short with you?" she repeated, incredulous "Ok, Sherlock, let's see if you can work out what's put me in a bad mood this morning. I'll give you a clue: it's sitting on my couch"

She crossed her arms and glared at him.

"Well" he began, standing up and taking a few steps across the room "you're obviously annoyed that I've come to work here. You find me irritating and uncontrollable but you know that I'll help you catch as many of the bad guys as possible, and that's the most important thing which is why you agreed to have me in the first place"

She stepped back and rested on the edge of her desk, a little uncomfortable with the fact that he had moved nearer to her.

"I thought that maybe you were angry that I broke into your office, but you looked annoyed before you had even come in, so it must be something else"

He looked at her carefully for a few minutes, whilst Lisbon tried to move as little as possible so not to give anything away.

"Ok, you got me" he said eventually "what is it?"

"What is it Jane? You're married! Were you ever going to mention that to me?"

"Oh" he clearly wasn't expecting that "you're annoyed about that?"

"You cheated on you wife!" she snarled "with me!"

"It's not like that, Teresa" he tried to explain "I'm married, but I'm not _married_ married"

"Oh great, I feel so much better now" Lisbon said, rolling her eyes.

"What I mean is that any romantic feelings my wife and I had for each other are long gone"

"So she gave you a pat on the back for getting laid?"

"Teresa, please, it wasn't-"

"It's 'Lisbon' or 'Boss' to you now" she snapped.

To Lisbon's relief, there was a knock on the door before Jane could reply.

"Boss?" Rigsby stuck his head in, nodding to Jane when he saw him.

"What is it?"

"I think we have a lead" he told her, stepping in and handing her a piece of paper "Johnson's just paid out a large sum to some unknown account in Bolivia"

"Right" she nodded "I'll take Cho and bring him in. You" she glared at Jane "go do something useful and try not to piss anyone off"

oooooooooooooooooooo

The rest of the team quickly became aware of Lisbon's bad mood, and for the next few weeks they were particularly wary of doing anything which could unleash her wrath.

"It's something to do with Jane" Rigsby muttered to Van Pelt as she stirred a cup of coffee in the kitchen "she gets angrier every time she looks at him"

"I know what you mean" she sighed "I hope this doesn't last, especially since he's here permanently now"

"They slept together"

Rigsby spun around to see Cho entering the kitchen.

"What?"

"Lisbon and Jane, they slept together on the last case and that's why she's so annoyed at him now" he shrugged "it's obvious isn't it?"

"Is it?" Van Pelt asked "how do you know?"

"You could cut the sexual tension between them with a knife" Cho explained, in his normal stoic way "plus I had the room next to hers in Los Angeles"

Van Pelt's eyes widened.

"Wait" Rigsby said slowly "so you heard Jane and the boss having…there's uh, plenty of coffee here actually Grace" he quickly changed track, spotting Lisbon just before she came in.

"What are you all doing in here?" she demanded "this case won't solve itself"

As they left she stomped towards the cupboard to find her favourite mug. With a groan, she remembered that it was still sitting, used, on the desk in her office.

"Why good afternoon Lisbon" Jane greeted her cordially "what makes you groan so?"

She ignored him, and selected a simple green mug to make her drink in instead.

"You can't ignore me forever" he murmured.

"I'm not ignoring you" she said through gritted teeth "I just have no reason to talk to you"

He opened the cupboard in front of her and leant over her shoulder to reach a particular box of tea bags. Lisbon tried to ignore the tingle that emanated from where his chest had pressed against her shoulder. It was stupid, just because they had slept together once didn't mean she had to act like a high school student every time he so much as brushed past her. If nothing else, she had still not got over the fact that she had been part of his cheating on his wife, regardless of whether or not they were _married_ married.

"I know who killed William Callers" he said in a sing song voice "and I know how to catch her as well"

oooooooooooooooooooo

Later that night, Lisbon found herself squashed in the bottom of a cupboard as they awaited the arrival of their killer, wondering why on earth she had agreed to this.

"Lisbon?"

Jane's voice floated over from the other side of the cupboard, where he was seated.

"What?" she replied.

"Why do you keep asking Minelli to move me to a different team?"

Oops. She wasn't sure how he knew that she had spoken to Minelli 3 times in the past month about transferring Jane to Missing Persons or somewhere she thought 'his skills would be of better use' as she had put it.

"Why do you think, Jane?"

"Are you _still_ annoyed that I didn't tell you I was married when we slept together?"

"No Jane, I got over that. And if it's quite alright with you, I'd much rather we forgot that unfortunate and unprofessional night"

"Ah sarcasm" she could hear the smile in his voice "if it helps, my wife has been sleeping with her manager for two years now, and the knowledge that she was married never stopped him"

Silence.

"Why are you still married?" Lisbon asked. It was less accusatory now, he had sounded genuinely a little hurt with his latest statement and she actually wanted to know the answer to her question.

"Less hassle" he said simply "she doesn't want the bad press of a divorce"

"Do you still love her?" Lisbon wasn't sure where she had found the confidence to ask such questions of someone she had only known for a few weeks, but she asked them anyway.

Just as Jane opened his mouth to answer, there was a bang as the door swung open in the room outside the cupboard and Jane and Lisbon immediately starting paying attention to whoever was out there.

oooooooooooooooooooo

"Um Boss"

"What is it Rigsby?" Lisbon replied, not even turning round from what Van Pelt was showing her on her computer.

"Jane said you told him to take over the interrogation, so I-"

Lisbon spun around and Rigsby stopped speaking for a second.

"Which room is he in?" she demanded.

"3" he replied "I'm sorry, I didn't realise"

"Don't worry about it Rigs" she sighed. She really needed to stop taking out her frustration at Jane on her team – they'd had to put up with two months of her anger now.

Lisbon marched into the interrogation room to find Jane talking in a slow, soothing voice to the young girl.

"Jane!" she barked "what are you doing?"

"Shhhhh Lisbon" he whispered to her "we're just getting somewhere"

"Jane" she hissed "you can't just walk into someone else's interrogation and kick them out. Making up orders is…what are you doing?"

"Just interrogating" he shrugged, before returning to his gentle words.

Lisbon looked carefully at the suspect. Her eyes were half shut, and she had an odd smile on her face as if she was asleep. She was hypnotised.

She jabbed Jane hard in the arm to get his attention and then dragged him out of the room, into the surveillance room.

"You cannot hypnotise suspects to get information out of them" she said firmly, dropping his arm.

"But she-"

"But nothing! I don't care how low her 'threshold' is! It's completely illegal, if nothing else! Twice now we've had this conversation, what do you not understand? Besides, you can't just walk into someone else's interrogation and kick them out"

Jane said nothing in response to this, just stood in front of her with a slight smile on his face.

"What are you smiling about?" she demanded "I don't think you understand the severity of this"

"It's just I forgot how hot you look when you're angry" he explained, grinning as she bristled in response.

"For God's sake Jane! We're meant to be catching the murderer of someone's daughter here, and you can't take it all seriously enough to follow the rules or stop with the stupid comments!"

"I'll follow the rules and stop with the comments" he said slowly "if you go for dinner with me"

Lisbon stared wide eyed at him for a few seconds. Of all the things she had expected him to say, that was not one of them.

"Are you crazy?" she said after a moment "what, in this universe, would convince me to go for dinner with you?"

"Because beneath all the excuses about marriage and professionalism, you're attracted to me and you want to" he shrugged.

Lisbon was flabbergasted. How could he stand there and say that to her so casually?

"I assume you're not saying anything because you're thinking about which dress you're going to wear?" he smirked.

"You are a deluded, perverted, immoral, arsehole" she said slowly "and I'm not even going to dignify that with a response. Now unhypnotise that poor women, and get the hell out of my sight"

Jane looked through the tinted window to the woman, still sat in her semi conscious state.

"Nahh" he decided after a second "I don't feel like it"

Lisbon closed her eyes for a second and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Unhypnotise. Her. Right. This. Minute"

"Ok, I admit that asking you to dinner was a long shot" he conceded "but I have one condition: that you'll sit down with me and talk _cordially_ about why you so are so angry at me. And before you say it, I don't believe all of that marriage nonsense – both of us know full well my marriage is a sham"

Lisbon considered that for a moment. For Jane, this was almost a _reasonable_ request. Well, if she ignored the part about him kicking Rigsby out of an interrogation to hypnotise a woman.

"Alright, _Patrick_ " she said slowly, enjoying the surprise on his face at her use of his first name "we have a deal"

"Brilliant" he grinned, and then patted her on the arm "thanks pal"

"Pal?" she repeated as Jane disappeared back into the interrogation room "I'm your boss, not your pal!"

ooooooooooooooooooooo

Jane badgered Lisbon endlessly about their 'little chat', as he'd begun calling it. In return, she came up with a plethora of different excuses for being unavailable. To be honest, she had never actually been planning on partaking and was surprised at his persistence in trying to talk to her.

It was late on a Friday night, three weeks after their argument in the interrogation room, when Jane let himself into Lisbon's office with two cups in his hand.

"What are you doing?" she asked, eying him warily.

"Bringing you tea" he explained, passing her a cup.

He had been on better behaviour recently, she had to admit. He'd offered to have a look at some of their older cases and in a matter of minutes had managed to determine the killer in three of them, which was probably the only reason she actually accepted the tea from him.

"Thanks" she muttered, taking a sip.

Jane sat down on her couch and watched her.

"What do you want?" she said finally.

"You" he said simply.

Lisbon rolled her eyes and looked back down at the paperwork in front of her.

"Come on Lisbon, talk to me. You did say you would"

"Did I? I don't remember"

"Lying doesn't suit you" he shrugged.

"Fine, you want to talk? I'll talk" Lisbon said, putting her pen down again "I'm annoyed at you because you didn't tell me you were married before sleeping with me – and before you start on all that 'it's not a proper marriage' non-sense, you still should have told me. And then instead of leaving it be, you continue to make smarmy remarks and ignore my authority and generally make a nuisance of yourself"

"You're still gonna lie to me Lisbon? I'm hurt"

"I'm not lying to you" she said through gritted teeth.

"Well I know you're not annoyed at me for being a nuisance" he pointed out, somehow still perfectly calm "because I was just as much a nuisance in that first case and you found it more endearing than anything else"

"Oh yes, adding a mountain to my workload is what I call 'endearing'"

"What I don't understand, is why you're unwilling to admit that you're attracted to me" he continued "I mean that's clearly why you're so annoyed at me, because you feel guilty for wanting me" he shrugged, sipping his tea again and then putting it on the edge of her desk.

"You know, you are one of the most arrogant people I have ever had the misfortune to come across in my life" she muttered "now get out of my office, or else I might just shoot you" she added, standing up and opening the door to let him out.

Jane stood up slowly and walked across the room, whilst Lisbon marvelled at the fact that her words had actually had some sort of effect on him. Instead of walking out the door however, Jane simply came to stand directly in front of her. Lisbon swallowed. She had inadvertently trapped herself between the corner made by the open door and Jane's body.

"Jane" she said quietly "Leave me alone"

He ignored her and took another step forward, now only inches away from her.

"Has anyone else told you quite how beautiful you are?" he asked softly, running a finger down the side of her face.

Lisbon was feeling very uncomfortable. Well, slightly aroused and uncomfortable. Most of her wanted to push him away; stop him before this situation became too dangerously close to her actually giving in. Unfortunately that part didn't seem to have control of her limbs right at that moment, so she remained frozen.

"Jane" she warned.

He took no notice of her protest and leaned in slowly to press his lips against hers. She should have stopped him. She was stronger than he was, she could have easily got him off her. Instead, she remained where she was and allowed him to kiss her. Disappointed by the fact that she wasn't kissing him back, Jane pulled away after a few seconds. Lisbon's eyes were wide with alarm and…something else he couldn't quite put his finger on.

"I…" she tried to speak, and then licked her lips "I-"

Jane leant in again and this time any of the tentative softness of his first kiss was gone. He slid one hand around her waist and pulled her body flush to his. Letting out a small squeak, Lisbon finally gave in and kissed him back. All coherent thoughts seemed to have vanished out of her head by this point. She had completely forgotten that they were tucked behind the door in her office, and anyone could walk in and see them. She could no longer remember why she had been so annoyed at Patrick Jane and his sham of a marriage. All she knew was that the man was a very, very good kisser.

Jane let out a slight moan as she nibbled on his lower lip and pushed her against the wall. He devoured her mouth, whilst she slid her hands around his neck to pull him closer to her. He wanted her. Badly. He pressed her even harder into the glass wall of her office, the blinds making a noise as they were crushed beneath her. He forced his mouth away from hers and started kissing down the side of her neck, stopped once to bite her skin and revelling in the gasp she let out. She could feel his erection pressing into his stomach and her ability to think returned slightly. Only instead of thinking about what a stupid thing she was doing, she was wondering whether she should move them to the couch, or stay here and let him have her right against her office wall. Before she could decide, there was a loud crash from outside the room and they broke apart.

They started at each other for a long time, both slightly in shock at what had happened. Jane was the first to regain control of himself and run a hand through his hair, trying to flatten it slightly from how Lisbon had messed it up.

"Sorry" Jane said, after what felt like hours "I didn't mean that to happen"

 _Sorry?_ Lisbon thought. _He chooses now to be the nice guy and apologise?_

"I should go" he added when she didn't reply.

Lisbon nodded quickly, and after one long look at her where he took in her beautifully dishevelled appearance and swollen lips, Jane left the room.

Lisbon sunk into the seat behind her desk. What had she just done? Worse still, what would she have done if something in the bullpen hadn't distracted them? She had a fairly good idea of where it would have gone, actually. It would have ended up much like they did last time, in a frenzy of rough passion. Only this time she was very much aware that she was his boss and he was married. Lisbon let her head flop down onto the desk as she let out a groan. What on earth had she got herself into?


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for the reviews and follows! Just a quick note in response to one particular review: I don't hate Patrick Jane (I actually love him –who doesn't?), but I think we all have potential for good and bad within us, and for the start of this fic it may appear that more of the 'bad' of Jane comes out.**

After that kiss in her office, Lisbon was planning on spending the next few weeks avoiding Jane and pretending it never happened. She wasn't even that angry at him any more (although in her mind breaking your wedding vows was never something she could deem acceptable, regardless of the circumstances), but worried about what might happen between the two of them if she let her guard down at all. In the evenings she had started leaving earlier and spending an hour or two in the CBI gym, until it was safe to return to her office and get some paperwork done without the danger of Jane coming in to try and talk to her.

These tactics worked really well for all of a month yet somehow, they ended up kissing in an empty alleyway when leaving a crime scene. If it hadn't been for the sound of Rigsby and Van Pelt chatting as they rounded the corner, she was fairly sure that neither of them would have stopped for a long time. She had no idea what had happened to her. She was so used to being in control of herself; she didn't know how to cope with this uncontrollable urge for Patrick Jane, even if every fibre of her being knew it was wrong on so many levels.

Jane hadn't mentioned his wife since that night hiding in the suspect's cupboard, and Lisbon had noticed that she hadn't once seen him wearing a wedding ring. She could think of a variety of reasons for that, but the one which she most hoped was that he had been telling the truth – he and his wife's marriage was basically non-existent. She told herself time and time again that this made her feel slightly better simply so she didn't feel guilty for the past - nothing whatsoever to do with the possibility of further encounters between them in the future.

Every time she felt her mind touching on the subject of Patrick Jane, she reminded herself of all of the reasons she should stay far away from him. First and foremost, the fact that she was his boss meant that CBI regulations stated that nothing was allowed to happen between them. This hadn't been an issue on the first case they had worked on together, since he wasn't technically an employee at that point, but by kissing him twice in the past few months she had actually broken this rule. Well, she was fairly sure she had anyway. She hadn't bothered to do any digging into the precise wording of the clause because she had an inkling that consultants weren't treated like most normal employees, and she felt much safer believing it was against the rules.

Secondly, he was married. Regardless of what he claimed about the state of his marriage and his wife's infidelity, she would never be in a position where she felt comfortable being in any sort of intimate relationship with a married man.

And thirdly, he was infuriating. The two of them had barely made it a day without arguing in the past three months of working together. They simply weren't compatible. A little voice in her head tried to remind her of all the nice things she had started to notice about him recently, but she pushed it away. So what if he brought her coffees and pastries in the mornings? And was it really that big a thing that he had spoken back to some sheriff who insinuated that she wasn't capable of her job? Both Cho and Rigsby would have done that had they been there at the time. The little nice things he did were very easily offset by his cocky nature and need to irritate people.

oooooooooooooooooooo

"Morning Lisbon, Cho, Rigsby, Grace" Jane greeted them all as he wandered into the bullpen grinning.

Somehow, the rest of the team had come to like him. Then again, he hadn't betrayed any of them in quite the same way, Lisbon reminded herself.

"Morning Jane" Van Pelt replied from beside Lisbon, as she showed her something about their latest victim's bank records.

Lisbon ignored him. How could anyone be in that good a mood at this time on a Tuesday morning?

After a few minutes she realised that Jane hadn't taken his normal seat on the brown leather couch, and was instead standing behind her and waiting patiently to be noticed.

"What?" she demanded, turning round to look at him.

"For you" he said, handing over the polystyrene cup "and there should be one each of these" he procured a paper bag from somewhere behind him and placed it on Van Pelt's desk, ripping it open so they could help themselves to the pains au chocolat.

"How come we don't get coffee as well?" Van Pelt asked.

"Because you don't get so grouchy when you haven't had your early morning caffeine hit" he told her, smiling at Lisbon.

Lisbon glared at him and then took a sip of the drink. Annoyingly, he had somehow worked out exactly what her favourite brew was.

"Ok" she said, after taking a few more sips "which one of you wants to come with me and talk to Bryson?"

"I will" Jane offered.

Rigsby and Van Pelt looked at each other and shrugged. Cho remained expressionless, still eating his pain au chocolat.

"Ok, Jane it is" Lisbon muttered "meet me in the parking lot in 10 minutes"

Jane was already in the parking lot when she got there, 7 minutes later, leant against her car with his arms crossed and eyes closed.

"Nice of you to join me, Lisbon" he said without opening his eyes "and for once you can't avoid me"

"I haven't been-"

"Oh come on, running off to hide in the CBI gym every night isn't fooling me" he shrugged, getting into the car.

They said very little to each other for the journey there, and then Jane vanished to 'use the restroom' almost as soon as they arrived. Lisbon had quickly learnt that this was a euphemism for 'have a poke around the house', but she let him do it. It often turned out interesting pieces of information she wouldn't have come across otherwise. He reappeared 5 minutes into her conversation with the grieving friend, telling her that they could go – in other words that this wasn't their man.

"Damn, I think I left my keys in there" Lisbon muttered as they walked down the drive, digging around in her pockets.

"You didn't" Jane told her, dangling them in her face and then returning them to the safety of his pocket.

"I'd rather walk back then let you drive, give them here"

"Nope"

"Jane seriously, give me my keys"

"You know, I haven't driven an automatic for years. It'll be a nice change from my little Citroen" he commented.

"Jane" she warned "hand them over. Now"

"Just trust me a little, Lisbon. You know I wouldn't do anything which could damage this beautiful face of mine – or yours for that matter"

Lisbon glared at him for a while, and then decided that he probably _was_ too vain to risk messing up his appearance.

"Fine" she said eventually, climbing into the passenger seat and slamming the door shut.

Halfway back, Jane took a turn off the highway and parked in a lay-by.

"Why have you stopped?" Lisbon asked, as he turned off the engine.

"Because" he turned to look at her "we need to talk, without you running off or someone interrupting us"

"About…?"

Lisbon already had a fairly good idea what this was going to be about, but part of her hoped that it could be about one of their open cases.

"Stop avoiding me, Teresa"

Lisbon didn't bother denying it, so instead she glared at him a bit.

"Look, we work well together and I know how much your job means to you. This" he waved his hand to indicate the pair of them "is messing with it. So stop avoiding me"

"You could have just come to my office and told me this" she pointed out "there was no need to steal my car keys and park in the middle of nowhere"

"And would you have stayed there long enough to listen to me?"

"Fine"

"What?"

"Fine, I'll pretend everything is ok between us. Can you just take me back to the CBI now?"

"Your wish is my command"

 _Well that was weird,_ Lisbon decided. Then again, he had a point. Her attempts to avoid him had been affecting their working together, which in turn made catching criminals more difficult. The thing was, she was really struggling to put her finger on what exactly she kept finding so attractive about him, which didn't help one bit. In the past she'd always had a thing for people who were fairly like her – hard working, married to their jobs, not looking for a serious relationship - so what was it about this conman-turned-consultant with a disregard for authority that she found so enthralling? This _married_ conman-turned-consultant, even. Then again, when she'd first met him she had had no idea about the married part; he had simply been a complex yet attractive man who challenged her in ways she'd never yet known, which is how he ended up in her bed in the first place.

oooooooooooooooooooooo

"Ok. Rigs; take Van Pelt and cover the back. Cho and I will get the front"

The team were seated around the van, putting their vests on and preparing to bring in their most likely suspect.

"What about-" Jane started.

"Stay here and try not to get in anyone's way"

Jane shrugged. The guns and violence was his least favourite part of working with the police, he didn't mind staying a long way from all of that.

As they clambered out of the van, Jane followed them and stretched his arms.

"Don't worry" he reassured Lisbon "I'm not going to try and go in with you"

He watched Van Pelt and Rigsby creep around the back of the large house, whilst Lisbon tucked herself behind the pillar nearest to him. Although Kevlar vests weren't known for being a good look on people, there was something about the way Lisbon looked when she wore them with a gun in her hand that he found particularly attractive. This, of course, was the only reason he had decided to wait outside the van. You couldn't get quite the same view of her running around with her gun pointed at someone from through the tinted glass.

Just as they were preparing to go in, Jane looked at the house again and frowned. There was someone watching them out the window. He took a closer look and realised that the man had a gun drawn, and was pointing it in the direction of the door beneath him. Jane followed the direction of the gun and hit Lisbon's dark head.

"Lisbon" he shouted suddenly, making the man in the window jump a little and then re-aim his weapon at Lisbon.

Realising that there was no way to explain exactly what was going on to Lisbon before it was too late; Jane decided to take the only alternative action. He sprinted across the lawn and threw himself at her, colliding with her and pushing her backwards. The two of them landed with a crash in the bush, just as a loud bang went off from the window.

"Jesus Jane!" she exclaimed, as Cho sprinted into the building.

She went to push him off her and get up, but he held her where he was and touched his finger to his ear to indicate that they should listen. Gunfire sounded from inside the house, a few shouts were heard, and then Van Pelt walked out with their suspect in cuffs followed by the other two team members.

"Are you ok boss?" Van Pelt asked, spotting her superior still tangled up in the bush.

"I'm fine"

Lisbon got to her feet, wincing slightly.

"Jeez Jane, could you not have picked a less prickly plant?" she said, examining her arms and noting the deep scratches that the thorns had left on her.

"Well excuse me for saving your life" he muttered, clambering up beside her.

They returned to the CBI, where Van Pelt insisted on cleaning up the cuts on Lisbon's arms whilst Cho interrogated their suspect. Normally Lisbon would never let someone fret over her like this, but her rookie was particularly adamant and on closer inspection she realised that a couple of the cuts were actually quite deep. Trust Jane to manage to shove her into the only practically lethal bush in that garden. Well, he had saved her life whilst risking his own, but still, he could have aimed towards the nice leafy one or even just the grass.

"There we go, all done" Van Pelt said with a smile as she stood up.

Lisbon's arms stung from antiseptic spray, but at least the dried blood was gone and she wasn't going to end up with horrible infections.

"Thanks Grace" Lisbon muttered.

"Hey"

Lisbon sighed and looked at the door, where Jane had just appeared.

"What do you want?"

"And hello to you to, Lisbon" he grinned back "Grace, do you mind giving us a moment?"

"No problem. I'm finished anyway"

She put the equipment back into the first aid box and closed it, smiling at her boss before she left the office.

"Really Jane, I have a lot of work to do. This better be good"

"I'm actually here to check if you're ok" he explained, taking a seat on the couch next to her "you were nearly shot just an hour ago"

"I'm fine" Lisbon said quickly, standing up to put some distance between them "Thanks, I guess. For saving my life"

"Well it wouldn't have reflected well on me if I had just stood there and did nothing" he shrugged "I have a reputation to uphold"

"Of course, it was more about your image than my life" she muttered.

"I'm joking"

"I know" she said, rolling her eyes at him.

"I don't get you, Patrick Jane" she said suddenly "you're this kind, lovely man who gets me coffee and saves my life…and at the same time you manage to be a cocky arse who hypnotises suspects and cheats on his wife. What is going on with you?"

"Well, first of all she's not really my wife so it really isn't cheating. And secondly, there's a lot of ambiguity over what 'hypnosis' really is, so technically-"

"This is exactly what I mean!"

"Ok ok, calm down" Jane held his hands up "I get it. Hypnosis wasn't good, and to be fair to me I haven't done it since you got really angry"

"And the wife part?"

"We have a…complicated relationship" he said slowly "we're more like roommates than anything else. Friends on a good day"

Lisbon rested the edge of her desk and crossed her arms, her left eyebrow raised.

"You want to know the story?" he asked eventually.

"Please"

"We got married in Vegas; it fell apart, and now she's in love with her manager"

"And yet you're still married?"

"She's worried a divorce would look bad for her career. We have a…sort of understanding"

"I still don't get it"

"And now you see why I didn't mention it all before" he muttered.

"I just…there was a photo of the two of you, months ago, and you look so…in love. I don't understand it"

"What photo?" he frowned.

"At some gala"

"You looked me up" he grinned triumphantly.

"That's beside the point; it's my job to look into potential members of my team"

"I'm a good actor" he shrugged "look, I've never had any reason to get divorced and it makes Angela's life easier if we don't"

"So you love her?"

"No" he said quickly "she's my friend, but I don't…I never really did"

"Right" she nodded "thanks for telling me then, but I've got a lot of work of work to do and I-"

"Teresa"

"What?"

"I…nothing. I'll leave you to your work, have fun"

oooooooooooooooooooo

Lisbon made it home to her apartment by 10pm that night. She'd had a long day, and all she wanted now was to sit down and relax. She changed into sweats and opened a beer before collapsing onto the couch. Realistically she knew that she would be better to have something healthy to eat and then take a long bath, but she just couldn't be bothered. A few sips into her beer there was a knock at the door.

"Before you slam the door in my face-"

"Jane, what are you doing here?"

"I want to talk to you" he said simply.

"How do you even find me? Oh god, you followed me home didn't you?" she groaned.

"Just listen to me for a minute"

"Fine, you might as well come in" she sighed, pulling the door open to let him in "you want a beer?"

"No, thanks"

"Ok, get talking then"

She sat down on the couch and looked up at him expectantly.

"I know that maybe you haven't had the best impression of me" he began.

"They do say you're a genius" Lisbon muttered.

"But I really like you, Teresa. I have done ever since I met you, and I really think you're the first person I've ever really..."

"Really what?" she asked.

"Really wanted to be with" he smiled "you're special"

"This isn't a joke, is it? I'm not part of one of your weird plots?"

"What? No. Teresa, this is real. I've been trying to show you for months but I admit that I haven't quite come off in…in the way I intended to"

"But you're-"

"Can you just forget all of the marriage stuff, and the working together stuff and history and all of that and just look me in the eye and tell me that you're not at all interested. If that's the case, I swear I'll leave it alone. I'll never mention it again"

"I…" Lisbon's eyes caught his and were held by the intensity of his gaze "I would be lying if I said I never thought about you…in that way" she said slowly. He was a mentalist, there was no point in lying to him "but we can't just ignore all of that stuff. You slept with me without telling me you were married. You bug me endlessly; give me tons more work to do; and if nothing else it's against CBI policy"

"It's not"

"Not what?"

"Against CBI policy. I looked into it"

"But there's still the fact that you're married" she said quickly, desperate to find a new excuse "and despite what you say-"

"Do you really see what Angela and I have as a 'marriage'?" he asked, eyebrows raised "after what I told you?"

"Well not traditionally" she reasoned "but legally, and morally"

"She's in love with another man, I haven't slept with her for nearly 4 years now" he said quietly "I haven't even seen her for three days, and she could be anywhere in the country for all I know"

Suddenly she was struggling to see him as her pain-in-the-ass consultant. All she could see was this good looking man who was baring his soul to her, to whom she was undeniably attracted. She stood up and took a step towards him.

"You promise me, this isn't one of your crazy plots?"

"On my life"

"Good"

Then she kissed him. He was so surprised he didn't kiss her back for a few seconds, and then he became aware of himself and threw himself into it with abandon. Their kiss was hungry and passionate, and it was only a matter of time until Jane was sliding his hands under her t-shirt and she was tugging his jacket off. When he was down to suit pants and an unbuttoned shirt, and Lisbon sported only sweatpants and a bra she paused kissing him only to murmur 'bedroom' before he scooped her up and carried her upstairs.

Jane's shirt was tugged off his body on the landing, and Lisbon's bra rested on her bedroom threshold, followed quickly by her pants and underwear.

"God, you're beautiful" he murmured between kisses, as she rubbed her hand teasingly over his crotch before pushing his suit pants and boxers down.

He kicked them off and then pushed her onto her back, leaning on his elbows to rest over her.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked.

"I swear to god Jane, if you choose _now_ to be the considerate gentleman…"

"Alright, I get the message"

He leant down and kissed her again, and then groaned loudly as she ran her hand down his body to grab hold of his cock. She slid her hand up and down his length and smiled at him, a little too innocently for his liking.

"You are so going to pay for that"

oooooooooooooooooooo

Lisbon awoke the following morning feeling refreshed and relaxed. Her eyes remained closed, allowing herself to wake up slowly for once before her alarm sounded. She'd had a better night's sleep than she had done for weeks, all thanks to…

Oh god.

Her eyelids flew open and caught sight of the wavy blond hair spread across the other side of her pillow. She nearly let out a groan, but then she realised that waking him up was the last thing she wanted to do right now. She considered sneaking out of her apartment but where would she go? What if he didn't leave until she came back? Most importantly of all, what on earth had she been thinking when she let him into her bed again?

Unfortunately, she didn't have much opportunity to think up another plan when her alarm started playing. She grabbed her phone and turned it off, but not before the man in the other side of the bed started to shuffle around and awaken. He rolled onto his side and pushed his hair out of his eyes, grinning at her.

"Morning"

His voice was low and scratchy with sleep. His hair was ruffled, and she could just see the top half of his bare chest where the comforter was pushed down.

So maybe she could put off dealing with the massive mistake she had made for a couple of hours. There was no harm in that, was there? Not when he was looking so utterly delicious in the bed beside her…

"Hey" she finally replied "sleep well?"

"Like a baby"

He shuffled slightly towards her in the bed and pushed her hair off her face, leaning in to peck her lips.

"I'm glad, maybe you could do some actual work today" she joked.

"Oh I think I can do just that"

His grin widened and he ran his hand down the side of her naked form. She felt a blush flooding her cheeks as she realised exactly what he had meant. She couldn't do this, she shouldn't; they had work in a couple of hours and…

He started to kiss the side of her neck gently and Lisbon felt the last feeble attempts to resist him melt away. Once more wouldn't matter. In fact, it might just reinforce the utter foolishness of the whole idea.

It ended up being twice more. After a particularly energetic wakeup, he had followed her through to the shower and made a very convincing argument for conserving water. Now clean, dressed, and feeling more satisfied than she had for a long time, Lisbon was ready for work. Jane had made her coffee whilst she dressed and was watching her eagerly as she sat down to take a sip.

"It's lovely, thanks" she indicated the mug as she out it back down on the table "I don't mean to be rude, but…shouldn't you head to the CBI now?"

His face dropped a little and she felt bad.

"Not that I'm trying to get rid of you" she hastened to explain, although her brain was shouting at her that that was exactly what she should be doing "it's just it might look a little suspicious otherwise"

"Of course" he nodded quickly "I'll see you later then"

She walked with him to the door, where he stopped and gave her a long kiss that nearly caused her to drag him back upstairs to her bed and keep him there all day. As soon as the door was safely shut after him she returned to her kitchen and let her head rest on the table beside her coffee mug.

This time yesterday, they had been little more than colleagues with a slight history and a smidgeon of sexual tension. Now? She didn't dare ask what they had become.

She forced herself to sit up and drink the rest of her coffee. She had a feeling that she was going to need a lot of it to get through the day.


	3. Chapter 3

**Wow, I didn't intend to leave it this long to update…Sorry!**

"What were you doing in the alley?"

Rigsby was in the interrogation room, talking to a boy who was barely out of his teens and looked utterly petrified.

"I don't know" he shrugged, his eyes flickering between Rigsby and the door "I was just wandering around and then I found him"

"Wandering around and you happened to come across a dead body?"

"Bad luck I guess, huh?" he laughed nervously.

Rigsby looked unamused.

"What do you think?" Lisbon murmured to Jane, in the surveillance room.

"I think" he said, stretching his arms out in front of him "I want to go back to yours and do that thing which we did last week, when you put-"

"About the case" she clarified through gritted teeth.

"Oh, that. He's innocent, just worried that we'll find out about his underage drinking"

"Damn" Lisbon muttered, knowing she agreed with him "there goes our only suspect"

"Now about that other thing" Jane continued "I loved it when you-"

"Jane" she warned him.

He shrugged but said nothing more. Lisbon let Rigsby work on the suspect for a little longer and then let him go. They were back to square one.

"Have we looked into the wife?" Lisbon asked Van Pelt, back in the bullpen.

"She has an alibi"

"How strong?"

"Breakable" Van Pelt shrugged "she was with a friend, but her car was there on the security camera and they ordered takeout for two"

"Let me see the security footage" Jane broke in.

Van Pelt tapped something into her computer and the footage came up. They watched the wife arrive in her car and then greet the friend at the door, before following her in.

"The car is here all along" Van Pelt showed them, speeding it up a little.

"Hmmmm" Jane frowned "go back a bit. Play it from 10:34"

"Alright" Van Pelt typed again and they watched.

"There" Jane said pointing at the screen.

"It's a tree?" Lisbon asked.

"No, behind the tree"

Van Pelt replayed the clip and they all watched intently. Something moved behind the tree, which was zoomed in to reveal the victim's wife.

"Bingo" Jane muttered.

They watched the clip on fast-forward until the wife returned to the house, over three hours later.

"Van Pelt, you talked to the wife's friend. What did she say?" Lisbon asked.

"That she was there till morning" Van Pelt explained "is there a chance that she didn't know her friend went out? Maybe they had already gone to bed"

"At half ten? I doubt it" Lisbon pointed out "you and Rigsby go and talk to her again, Cho and I will bring the wife in"

oooooooooooooooooooo

Jane decided that he wanted talk to wife and after making him promise not to use any form on hypnosis, Lisbon agreed. As a result the whole team was now watching them from the surveillance room, Lisbon ready to pounce if Jane so much as spoke in a soothing voice.

"Do you know why you're here?"

"No idea" she shrugged, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair as if bored.

Jane smirked slightly; this woman was an excellent liar, but not quite good enough to get past him.

"You must have some sort of idea" he pushed "you don't seem very surprised to be here. Or worried, for that matter"

"I guessed you didn't have any leads, so you thought you'd try and pin it on the wife" she said simply "although I had nothing to do with it"

"You're right, you had an alibi. So why would we bother trying to pin it on you?"

"Beats me" she shrugged again.

He was silent again, surveying her to see if she'd spotted his subtle tense change.

"Where were you on the night of the murder?" he asked eventually.

"At my friend's, like I said"

"No, that's where you were for most of the night. I mean between half ten and two"

"As I said, at Claire's" she frowned.

"No"

"No?" she repeated.

"I don't know why you're still lying" he admitted "we looked back at the security camera footage and noticed that you left the house between half ten and two. I don't think you murdered your husband – you're not capable of it, if nothing else – but I am a little intrigued to know where you went"

"I didn't murder my husband" she muttered, her voice low.

"I know that, but I'm fairly sure you were cheating on him"

The wife glared at him, but decided to say nothing.

"And that's where you went on the night of the murder" Jane continued, taking her silence as confirmation "there's no point lying to me. You might as well just tell the truth and we can take you off the suspect list once and for all; if not we'll have to dig it all up. Imagine the scandal; all of your friends and neighbours knowing, staring at you as you walk past, whispering behind your-"

"Alright" she said suddenly "so what if I was cheating on James? Like he cared"

"There we go" Jane grinned in satisfaction, before turning round to face the glass "Lisbon you take over and do the boring bit now"

Lisbon sighed but opened the door to the interrogation room and walked in. Jane grinned at her and waltzed out, leaving her to deal with the statement updates and tracking down whoever she was cheating with to get another alibi.

Once the wife was free to go, the team congregated in the bullpen.

"I'm always amazed at how many people we come across in cases are cheating" Van Pelt commented.

"Sad, isn't it?" Lisbon commented, forcing herself not to allow her eyes to flicker towards Jane.

"Lots of them are in unhappy marriages" Rigsby pointed out, halfway through a bite of his sandwich.

"Just because you're in an unhappy marriage doesn't give you the right to cheat" Van Pelt pointed out "get a divorce or a marriage counsellor, cheating's not going to help"

"Some cultures promote polygamous relationships" Jane chipped in.

"That's different. If the other person knows then it's not really cheating"

"So it's perfectly ok to cheat if your partner knows?" Jane pushed, and Lisbon was starting to get a feeling that this was more than just a generalisation.

"Well no" Van Pelt admitted "but I guess it's better"

"Van Pelt" Lisbon broke in, desperate to change the subject "did you manage to track down Roger Jefferson?"

"I've got it right here. Just like the wife said, he lives three houses down from the friend who admitted to covering for her"

"Great" Lisbon replied "let's go and speak to him"

"I'm coming" Jane told her.

"Brilliant" Lisbon muttered under her breath; just what she needed.

oooooooooooooooooooo

When she left her office that evening and made her way down to the parking lot, she wasn't particularly surprised to find Jane leaning against her car. After the day she'd had though, she'd been hoping to avoid any reminder of her own traitorous relationship.

"Hey" he smiled at her.

"Hi" she replied wearily.

"You ok? You look a little tense"

"I'm fine, just tired" she sighed "I don't mean to be rude, but would you mind if I didn't see you tonight?"

"This is about what Grace said, isn't it?"

"No" she lied quickly.

"Then why can't I see you? I'm not just looking for sex if that's what you're thinking"

"My boiler's a bit dodgy"

"Come to my house then; Angela's away" he grinned, knowing perfectly well that she was lying.

Lisbon contemplated her options. She was fairly sure that Jane wasn't going to just drop it, so she could either invite him back to her apartment or give in to her intrigue and go back to his house. As bad as it was, she was tempted by the latter option. All she'd seen of Jane's marriage was a handful of images on the internet. Going to his house may be able to determine once and for all whether or not the niggling doubt about what he'd said to her was completely unfounded. On the other hand, she would feel completely uncomfortable walking into the house he bought and shared with his wife. Especially since she knew she'd probably end up sleeping with him.

"I know you want to" he said, standing up from the car and stretching.

"Just this once" she conceded, letting her curiosity take over for a change.

As she followed him on the drive to his house, she berated herself for giving in so easily. She reminded herself on a daily basis how wrong all of this was. She knew deep down that she shouldn't be in any sort of relationship with someone who was married, but she just couldn't help herself. Every time she was at home by herself she vowed to break it off, but the next time she saw him all such thoughts seemed to disappear out of her head. She didn't even know what they actually were. They weren't boyfriend and girlfriend or anything of the sort. She wasn't so sure that friends with benefits covered it either. Colleagues who had some sort of lapse of control around the other, maybe?

She was surprised at what greeted her when she pulled up onto Jane's drive. His house was surprisingly normal, with a little front garden and red wooden door.

"This is nice" she commented as she climbed out of the car.

"It's alright" he shrugged "come in"

As Lisbon stepped over the threshold, she was semi expecting Angela to walk through at any moment and see her. Not that there was anything suspicious about her being there right now, they were colleagues after all.

Jane gave her a quick tour of the house, whilst Lisbon picked up on the fact that there were more photos of landscapes than there were of the married couple; a good sign in her book. When they walked up the stairs, Lisbon was once again relieved to discover that they actually had separate bedrooms.

"What do you think?" Jane asked as they stood at the kitchen counter, drinking tea "of the house" he clarified when Lisbon didn't speak.

"It's nice" she repeated "but not what I expected"

"What did you expect?"

"I don't know, something a little more…showy"

"I never had clients back here" he said with a smile.

"Still" she shrugged.

"You're uncomfortable here" he commented.

"Well yeah, it's you and your wife's house"

"And you're just a colleague, visiting for a cup of tea" he countered, sipping his own cup "and she's not my wife"

"You know what I mean"

"You worry too much; you just need to relax a little"

"Sure" she snorted.

"You do" he insisted, putting down his tea and coming to stand behind her.

"Jane" she warned, as he ran his hands up her back and started to gently massage her shoulders.

"I'm not doing anything" he said, continuing to work on the tension in her upper back.

Whatever he was doing did feel good, so she let him continue for a bit. Then he slid his hands down over the curve of her arse, and then around her waist as he started to press kisses down her neck.

Lisbon was suddenly torn. She loved what he was doing and under normal circumstances she would happily partake, but they were in the house he shared with his wife. She'd already made the dubious decision to actually come here in the first place; she really couldn't let this get any further than it already had.

She pulled herself out of his grasp and turned to face him.

"Patrick, we can't"

"You want to" he pointed out, stepping towards her and reaching out for her waist.

"But we can't" she reaffirmed "it's not right"

"I know for a fact Angela has had him back here"

"That still doesn't make it ok"

He stepped forward and kissed her again, this time on the lips. She didn't stop him, but she didn't kiss him back with as much enthusiasm as normal. He ran his hands over her back and sucked her lower lip, and as usual, all other thoughts began to melt away.

Before she could really comprehend what was happening, she found herself perched on the edge of the work surface with her suit pants in a crumpled heap on the floor as Jane easing himself into her. Her shirt was undone, and Jane had pushed her bra up her chest to access her breasts which he occasionally kneaded as he thrust into her. The sex was fast and rough, and when finished Lisbon tugged her pants onto her slightly shaky legs feeling both incredibly satisfied and guilty.

"I should go" she said as she did up her shirt.

"Stay" he requested, not even bothering to do up his own shirt buttons.

"I can't"

He nodded slowly, accepting defeat. He didn't want her to feel like someone he just wanted sex from, because she meant so much more than that to him. At the same time, he knew that there was no way she would sleep at his house overnight.

"Thanks for having me" she said, smiling a little at him.

"You don't have to go right away" he said suddenly "have another cup of tea"

"Jane…"

"I don't want you to leave"

"I have to" she said, looking down "I shouldn't have come"

She shot him another slightly sad smile as she picked her jacket up from the floor and pulled it on. He followed her to the door, hoping that she would change her mind but knowing she wouldn't. He kissed her again before she left, trying to show her how much she really meant to him.

Once she had gone he slumped down on the couch in his living room. He didn't know what had become of him. For the past 4 years he had known that his marriage was hopeless, and that his wife had had a string of affairs along the way. He didn't even blame her for it; he was a useless husband. He hadn't been too bothered that he was still married though. It kept a lot of the women who attended his shows off him, and at the time he had no real reason to divorce Angela. As well as that, she was working her way up in the modelling world and both of them knew that the bad press of a divorce probably wouldn't help that. When she'd got together with her manager (even if she never mentioned it, he knew exactly what was going on) he'd assumed at some point she would bring up the subject of divorce, but she never did. Their arrangement wasn't ideal, but it seemed to work.

Until he had met Teresa Lisbon five months ago and suddenly remembered what it was like to truly want someone, that was. He'd slept with her at the end of the case because he couldn't stop himself, assuming that he would never see her again. When Minelli rang him, he had jumped at the opportunity to work with her again – not just to see Lisbon, but because he had been wanting to get out of the Psychic scene for a while. And now he had no idea what to do. He wanted to date Lisbon like normal people did. To go out for dinner with her, hold her hand and go to sleep beside her. But because of his marriage, he couldn't do all of that. Lisbon was uncomfortable with their relationship, and he hated it.

He looked around the room and found the only photo of his wedding. He was smiling lazily at the camera, half drunk with his arm thrown over Angela's shoulder in a way that looked more friendly than anything. She looked happy enough, dressed in her simple green dress rather than the traditional white wedding gown. They had only decided to marry about an hour previously.

He knew that they should divorce, but he wasn't entirely sure what was stopping him. It would be a big change, he knew. He had an inkling that part of what was stopping him was that he enjoyed the security and constancy of his situation, regardless of the fact that his marriage was purely superficial. Having grown up on a Carnie Circuit, he was naturally reluctant to leave anything that screamed permanence. But he couldn't carry on like this. One day, Angela was going to want to move on with her life (probably to marry her manager) and he had no real reason to try and stop her. He didn't love her – hell, he barely even saw her.

He resolved to try and talk to her about it when she returned. This situation wasn't fair on anyone, least of all Lisbon, who was feeling guilty when he knew it was all his fault.

He dozed off on the couch, his mind filled with happy images of Lisbon as his 'proper' girlfriend.

oooooooooooooooooooo

Lisbon's mind was in similar turmoil all evening and although she didn't snap at him for the rest of the week, she also hadn't seen Jane outside of work since. As Friday night approached, Lisbon wasn't looking forward of a whole weekend with no cases to distract her from her thoughts about Jane. Thankfully (or perhaps not) her brother James chose that night to catch up with his elder sister.

"Hey Reese" he said cheerily when she picked up the phone.

"Hey" she replied, less cheerily "how are you doing?"

"Great, I just asked Rose to marry me" he said, clearly unable to contain his excitement.

"You did? What did she say?" Lisbon sat up in her chair, suddenly distracted from her thoughts.

"She said yes"

"Congratulations! That's amazing Jimmy"

"Thanks" he responded, and she could almost hear him smiling "the wedding won't be for a few months but you have to come, Reese"

"I will" she said "give me the date as soon as you know it and I'll organise it"

James said nothing back and Lisbon pushed away the guilt at his obvious lack of faith in her words.

"So tell me about it, how did you propose?"

"I took her out for dinner, then we went for a walk and I asked"

"That's lovely. I'm so happy for you"

"Thanks Reese" he replied quietly "I can't believe it's real, I mean she's so beautiful and clever and I'm…well, me"

"Don't put yourself down" she scolded him.

"But you know what she's like" he pushed "she went to an Ivy League school and she could easily be a model"

Lisbon went quiet for two reasons at this point: firstly, the mention of a model reminded her of Angela, and secondly…

"You've never met her, have you?"

"I couldn't come for thanksgiving last year, remember" Lisbon sighed.

"I do now" James said, a little bitterly.

"I'll meet her before your wedding, I promise" Lisbon said quickly "I'll find a weekend soon and fly over"

"Sure"

There was a lull in the conversation for a second, and then James spoke again.

"So what's going on in your life sis, still fighting the bad guys?" 

"They never stop coming" Lisbon agreed.

"What about outside of work? You seeing anybody?"

"No" she replied hurriedly. Ever since he'd got a girlfriend James had made a habit of asking after her love life.

"That sounded like a yes" he teased.

"Definitely not" she responded, cursing herself for being so transparent.

"Oh come on, tell me about him"

"I don't…I mean there's sort of someone, but it's not…it won't…" she faltered, trying to find the words to explain it without telling him the whole story "he's married" she blurted finally "and we work together and it's a massive disaster but…I can't help it; I really like him"

"What? Go from the start"

So Lisbon ran through the whole story, skipping the part about sleeping with him on the case or their inexplicable need for each other's bodies (no matter how old they were, she would never feel comfortable discussing her sex life with her little brother) but making sure to focus on Jane's basically non-existent marriage.

"So he's your sort-of married consultant who you're basically dating?" he confirmed.

"Well not dating…" she mumbled "I don't know what we are, but yes he's married and yes he's my consultant"

"Right" he said slowly.

"Sorry" she muttered "I didn't mean to pile all of this on you, but I haven't told anyone and it's been driving me crazy for months"

"Don't apologise" he laughed "but wow, what a mess"

"I know" she said miserably.

"Why can't he just divorce this other woman?"

"The career thing"

"But that's not fair on you"

"But I only met him a few months ago" she pointed out "they've been married for 6 years, I can't ask him to divorce her"

"But he can't just…sorry? No, I'm just on the phone to Reese. Sure, just a minute. Sorry sis, I've got to go" he said regretfully.

"Bye Jimmy" she said "and congratulations again"

"Good luck" he replied "bye"

Lisbon dropped her phone on her living room table and slumped back in her chair. She was really happy for her younger brother, but it had reminded her what a mess her love life was currently. On top of that she remembered what a rubbish sister she had been since she moved to California, just over 10 years ago. Still, at least she'd get to watch her younger brother marrying the girl of his dreams and catch up with some old family and friends.

She wandered through to her kitchen and found a bottle of wine, poured a generous serving into a glass and then gulped it down. Then she filled it up again and carried both the glass and the bottle through to her living room. She didn't often turn to alcohol to solve her problems, but just this once she decided to.

There was a knock at the door a little later and Lisbon went to open it, fairly sure she knew who it would be.

"Hi" Jane greeted her.

"Come in" she said, pulling the door further back to let him in.

"What's up?" he asked as she shut the door after him.

"I just spoke to my brother, he's getting married" she explained.

"That's great" Jane smiled "isn't it?"

"It is" she confirmed "it's just…I don't know what I'm doing at the moment. I mean, look at us. You're my colleague, and married for god's sake"

Jane looked around the room and spotted the half empty bottle of wine and glass.

"It's a joke" she continued "I don't know what I was thinking"

"You're drunk" he pointed out "nothing seems the same when you're drunk"

"Sure" she snorted "did you marry your wife when you were drunk then?"

"Yes, actually" he admitted.

She stared at him for a moment, and then slumped down on the couch.

"I'm not drunk, anyway" she clarified.

Jane frowned a little but didn't counter it.

"I'm such an idiot" she groaned "of course I'd be attracted to someone who's married, how else could I make sure to avoid an actual, intimate relationship?"

"You didn't know I was married when we first slept together" he reminded her, a little hurt that she'd suggested that the fact he was married was part of the reason she liked him.

"That was only meant to be a one night stand"

"But it meant more than that" he said, sitting down beside her and pushing the wine to the other side of the table "to both of us"

"Not enough for you to divorce your wife, clearly"

"Teresa, I-"

"I know you're here for sex" she said, glaring at him a little "so go on, take me"

"Lisbon, I'm not going to _take you_ "

"You should. That's all we are, isn't it?"

"I'm not having sex with you" he said through gritted teeth "you need a glass of water and some sleep"

"What are you even doing here then?" she asked, eyebrows raised.

"I wanted to talk to you"

"And what if I don't want to talk to you?"

"Then I guess I'll go"

"Good, go then" she said, pointing at the door.

He looked at her carefully for a moment, and then dejectedly stood up and walked away. She kept her eyes on him the whole way, daring him to so much as consider turning back. Then the door was closed after him and she flopped down again, the tears already leaking out of the corners of her eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

**Long time no update! I haven't forgotten this, just been busy and determined to get Mistake finished (which I have now done!)**

 **Enjoy, hopefully!**

Lisbon was a little embarrassed about her behaviour towards Jane that evening, but not enough to apologise to him in the course of the next week. She didn't deny what she had said; their 'relationship' or whatever it was, was a bit of a joke. She just wished that she hadn't said it in such a flippant way. Still, that didn't stop her from inviting him over midway through the next week. They'd been working on a particularly gruelling case that day, and if she was entirely honest she knew that she was using sex as an outlet for it. From the way Jane's face lit up when she whispered a quick 'come over tonight' in passing, she knew that he didn't mind either.

When he arrived at her door at nearly 11pm on Wednesday night, she didn't give him a chance to speak before she pulled him in and pressed her lips to his. He didn't complain though, and proceeded to push her against the closed door and made quick work of undressing her. With great difficulty, they managed to get upstairs and onto the bed before Jane pushed her onto her back and all worries and stresses of her current life left her head entirely.

They barely spoke a word to one another after, and it wasn't long before Lisbon dozed off with Jane's hand still running up and down her side in a soothing way. She was slightly surprised to wake up the following morning and find him still beside her, her own leg resting on top of his and his arm hooked around her side. Several times in the past she had awoken to find him already gone, and she had to admit that she was a little flattered that he had stayed after the way she had blatantly used him to diffuse her stress. Well, he hadn't exactly complained at the time either.

The clock on her bedside table said that she had three quarters of an hour before she had to leave for work. She stretched her arms out and yawned, before rolling onto her side and nudging Jane to wake him.

"Wake up" she said, prodding him a little more harshly "we have work"

"What if I don't want to?" he groaned, his eyes still firmly closed.

"Your boss will get really pissed off"

Finally he rubbed his eyes and opened them, yawning loudly. He smiled at her for a few seconds, and then yawned again.

"Do you want to shower first?" she asked "whilst I get my coffee"

"Alright" he sighed.

She climbed out of bed and pulled on a dressing gown, before wandering downstairs and collecting with a slight blush the clothes strewn about the place. When she returned upstairs with her coffee in hand Jane was already in the shower, and she was just laying out an outfit on her bed when her cell rang.

"Lisbon" she answered.

"Hey Boss" Van Pelt replied "I've just got the autopsy report, there's something really strange on here"

"Oh yeah?" Lisbon said, wondering why on earth Van Pelt was already working.

"The victim's lungs were full of water, but that wasn't what killed her"

"Water?"

"Yup, but she had severe internal injuries which the coroner is fairly certain killed her. Not the blow to the head"

"Jesus" Lisbon muttered "we need to get back to that crime scene. Can you tell the others?"

"Sure"

"Ok, bye"

"Bye"

She put her phone back on her bedside cabinet and contemplated the latest development. As far as she was aware the crime scene had been nowhere near an area of water, which added a completely new layer of mystery to their case.

She heard the water turn off in the bathroom as her cell rang again.

"Lisbon"

"Oh sorry, I meant to dial Jane" Van Pelt replied "sorry Boss"

"Don't worry"

Lisbon hung up and put the phone down again, right next to her own.

Shit.

That was Jane's cell she had just answered. They were very similar looking, and without her mind focussed on it picking up the wrong phone was an easy mistake to make. How to cover it up though, was not quite so easy.

She heard the bathroom door open and just as Jane walked into her bedroom with a towel wrapped round his waist, his phone rang again. An idea popped into her head and she grabbed his phone and answered it, intentionally this time.

"Hi Grace" she said quickly "I forgot that I'd picked Jane's cell up last night, he left it in the bullpen"

"Oh" Van Pelt sounded a little surprised, but not overly "I'll try his home then"

"Alright, you do that" Lisbon replied, knowing full well that Jane wouldn't be there to answer it "although he may have left already" she added quickly, picturing Angela answering the phone and wondering exactly where her husband was.

"Ok"

Van Pelt hung up and Lisbon let out a sigh.

"What was that about?" Jane asked, smirking slightly at her obvious distress.

"I answered your phone" she explained "I'm such an idiot, and now Grace is going to call your house and your wife will answer and wonder where you are and it won't take Grace long to work it all out"

She let out a groan and sank down onto her bed, her head in her hands.

"Hey don't worry" he reassured her "she won't be there anyway"

"Hopefully" she said, peering at him through a gap between her fingers.

"Go and have your shower"

"Yeah" she nodded.

oooooooooooooooooooo

From the way Van Pelt acted when Lisbon met her at the scene, she didn't appear to have noticed anything out of place with regards to her boss and consultant. Jane shot her a look that said 'I told you so' before giving them his take on the latest update, and then Lisbon made a thing of giving Jane his phone back when she knew Van Pelt was looking.

For once Lisbon was almost relieved when Jane pissed off the suspect they went to talk to, because it gave her a nice excuse to ignore him for the rest of the morning instead of worrying about how their interactions would look to the rest of the team. Unlike her, Jane seemed to have no problem acting like they were no more than colleagues.

Since the previous night they seemed better than they had the past couple of weeks. She was still very aware about the mess she had got herself into but it was much easier to put up with the idea of him being married when they were in bed at her apartment, not in the house he shared with his wife.

"Hey"

Jane had walked into her office, holding up a sandwich as some sort of peace token.

"What do you want?"

"To give you this" he said, handing her the sandwich "It's nearly three and I know for a fact that you've had nothing but coffee today"

"Thanks" she muttered "I'm still annoyed at you by the way"

"About the Jackson thing? Really, he had it coming to him"

"Jane, you can't just walk into someone's house and ask if they brutally murdered their neighbour"

"He was clearly a bit of a pervert, it was entirely believable" Jane shrugged "you must have seen the way he looked at you, he was basically drooling"

"So that's what this is about? You've given me a ton of extra work to do because you didn't like the way that someone _looked_ at me?"

"He shouldn't have looked at you like that" he said calmly, sitting down on the couch and crossing his legs.

"How he did or didn't look at me is none of your business"

"Of course it is, because you're my…" Jane paused for a moment, clearly searching for a word that would cover their relationship "friend" he settled on finally.

"Right" she snorted "it's definitely nothing to do with the fact that you were overprotective and jealous"

"I will admit, that was a big part of it"

Lisbon raised her eyebrows; she had never expected him to actually admit that. She wasn't even that annoyed at him for how he had acted towards the suspect, who, as he had said, was a creep.

"I have work to do" she said eventually "go back to your couch and solve this case for us. Thanks for the sandwich"

"I prefer your couch" he said simply.

"Jane, you can't just stay in here all the time. It looks…odd"

"Only if you think there's something untoward going on" he said, laying back on the couch "which nobody does"

"You don't know that"

"I do" he maintained "now get back to staring dreamily at me whilst you pretend to work"

"You are utterly delusional" she murmured, taking a bite out of her sandwich "and widely overestimate yourself"

"That's not what you said last night" he sang back "I believe it was more along the lines of 'you're incredible at this' and then a string of expletives"

"Jane" she hissed "you can't…what have you got?" she said suddenly to Rigsby, who had appeared at the door.

"I was looking through the victim's emails" Rigsby began, barely noticing Jane lounging on the couch "and she's got lots of emails from one address in particular. Fairly graphic emails" he clarified, placing his laptop on the desk for her to look at.

"Right" Lisbon said, reading through a couple of examples "these are…pretty unpleasant"

"Yeah" Rigsby nodded "Van Pelt is trying to track down whoever this is, but from the sort of thing they're saying about it must be someone who saw her on a daily basis"

Jane came to stand behind the desk; purposefully brushing Lisbon's shoulder as he leant down to read the screen.

"Take Cho and talk to her colleagues, it's possible that this could have been someone she saw at work" Lisbon said, trying hard to ignore the fact that unbeknownst to Rigsby, Jane had just slid his hand onto her back and was now trailing it up and down.

"Sure thing Boss. Jane, you done reading?"

"Yup" Jane said, standing up again "someone clearly has a…wild imagination"

Rigsby left and Lisbon suddenly found herself alone with Jane again, his hand still rested on her back. He leant down and pressed a kiss to her earlobe, and then suddenly ran his tongue along the shell of her ear.

She gasped but before she could respond he had walked back round to her couch where he grinned smugly at her, knowing perfectly well the effect that his mouth near her ear had on her.

"I am so going to get you" she muttered under her breath, which only caused his grin to widen.

oooooooooooooooooooo

Lisbon's chance to get back at Jane presented itself two days later. She'd sent the rest of her team home earlier that evening, and she was trying to work through some paperwork that had piled up the past few days as they busied themselves with their latest case whilst Jane was dozing lightly on the couch in her study. He looked undeniably sweet when he was asleep like that, with his feet curled under him and a half-smile creeping onto his face.

She tidied up her desk and got her bag ready to leave, before crouching right next to Jane's head.

"Jane" she whispered, stroking his hair gently "wake up"

He shuffled a little, and she could tell he was awake but he didn't open his eyes or give anything away.

"Everyone else has gone home" she continued "we're alone here"

His eyes fluttered open at her suggestive tone, and then he smiled at her.

"Everyone's gone home, have they?"

"Yup" she nodded.

"I wonder what we could do" he mused, sitting up and stretching "whilst there's nobody around"

"I have no idea" she murmured, settling on the couch beside him with her leg pressed against his. She reached out and started to run her hand up and down his leg slowly, just like he had done to her back a few days ago. Then she leant up to his ear.

"You know" she murmured, and he shivered at the feeling of her warm breath on his ear "I've always wondered what it would be like to do it here"

"Maybe we should try" he replied softly.

"Maybe" she purred, running her hand up to brush the crotch of his trousers.

He let out a slow breath of air as she let her hand play around that area a little, tracing the outline of his erection through his suit pants. He used one hand to pull her face towards him and kiss her, whilst the other went to fondle her breast.

"It's not just the couch I've considered" she continued, as he trailed kisses down her neck "the desk is the perfect height for you to…"

He cut her off with a groan as her hand tightened its grasp on his crotch. He pushed her back on the couch and rested on his elbows to kiss her hungrily. She kissed him back, and then manoeuvred them so that they were lying side by side on the couch. Then she slid down onto the floor so she was resting on her knees, and grinned at him. Seeing her kneeling in front of his crotch with a coy grin on her face, Jane quickly worked out her intention and reached down to undo his pants just as she stood up and stretched.

He stared questioningly at her as she walked across the room and retrieved her bag.

"Teresa" he said softly "what are you doing?"

"It's late" she shrugged "I've got to be back early tomorrow"

"You can't just…"

"Can't just what, Jane?" she grinned at him and slipped her bag onto her shoulder "night, sweet dreams"

Jane watched her walk away and groaned. Brilliant, now he was lying on the couch in Lisbon's office with a hard-on and he was fairly certain that any chance of sex with her tonight had just flown out of the window.

oooooooooooooooooooo

It was 7 in the morning and the team were crowded in the drizzle around a single body.

"Do we know the cause of death?" Lisbon asked Cho, who had arrived first and spoken to the first respondent.

"Not yet, could be poison or a natural cause seeing as there's nothing obvious"

"Let's hope it's a natural cause" Lisbon muttered "we could really do without another case"

"Morning" Jane called as he strolled onto the scene "a little early isn't it?"

"Just a little" Rigsby said under his breath.

Jane looked carefully at the body for a few moments, and then leaned in closer to inspect something.

"Jane, see anything?" Lisbon asked. They were back on fairly stable ground at the moment, although she was pretty sure he wasn't yet over what she had done to him in her office the previous week.

"There's a body" he said, standing up and pointing at it.

"Anything _beyond_ the obvious"

"He's dead?"

"And now I remember why we employ you" she rolled her eyes "Cho and Rigsby, see if forensics picked up anything which could help us to get an ID. The rest of us will go back to the office"

"I think you'll find that he works somewhere in modelling" Jane told Lisbon "look at his nails, the clothes he's wearing, and the remnants of makeup"

"Or he cares about his appearance?" Lisbon pointed out.

"You asked what I thought" Jane shrugged "10 bucks says I'm right"

"I'm not betting with you"

"Because you _know_ I'm right"

"Are you coming back to the CBI?" Lisbon asked, ignoring his last remark.

"If I must" he yawned "oh, and you might want to check his chest pocket Lisbon"

With a roll of her eyes, Lisbon went back to the body and slipped her gloved hand into the pocket to pull out a scrap of paper.

 _You look beautiful when you're annoyed._

Lisbon snorted and shoved the note into her pocket, purposefully avoiding Jane's eyes.

"What was it boss?" Van Pelt asked.

"Nothing" Lisbon reassured her "just…Jane"

Van Pelt stared at Jane, who shrugged and raised his eyebrows.

"Let's get back and do some work" Lisbon told them decidedly.

Unfortunately for Lisbon, Jane was proven right when Van Pelt managed to get an ID on their victim and confirmed that he was indeed a model. Of course Jane would know a model when he saw them – he was married to one, for god's sake. Knowing who their victim was however, did little to help them work out who had killed him. According to his family he was a hugely likeable person and they could think of nobody who would want to harm him. They talked to the people who he had worked with, who again could come up with no names. The only possible lead they had was that he had met up recently with some friends from high school, but Lisbon couldn't think how casually seeing an old friend would lead to his murder.

It was also difficult because every way their investigation turned she was reminded of Jane's wife and her modelling career, and it made her feel particularly uncomfortable. When Jane found her in her office that evening and invited her out for dinner, her immediate response was to refuse.

"I've got to call my brother" she said apologetically "another night?"

Jane didn't say anything back for a moment, and stepped into the room.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I promised him I'd call and it's already getting late in Chicago…" she trailed off.

"Call him now, then come for dinner with me?" Jane suggested, knowing full well that that wasn't the problem.

"I…" Lisbon searched for another excuse "alright, fine. Give me 10 minutes"

"Great" Jane grinned "I know just the place"

He left her in peace to internally berate herself for not sorting out this mess she was in. Deep down she knew that she needed to give Jane an ultimatum: divorce his wife, or stop whatever it was they were doing. Part of her was scared that he might just refuse to (in which case she was fairly sure that she simply wouldn't be able to stop seeing him, and nothing would change), but even more of her was scared of actually ending up in a serious relationship with this man with no complicated marriages to hide behind. They'd been seeing each other (if that's what it was) for three months now, how much longer could she keep this up? Even though he claimed repeatedly that he and Angela were nothing (and from what she had seen in his house, he wasn't exaggerating) she still didn't feel comfortable in the slightest about it all.

Realising that Jane was waiting for her, she picked her phone up and dialled her brother's number.

"Hey Jimmy" she said, putting on her falsely cheerful voice "how are you doing?"

"Really good. We've started looking into Wedding stuff"

"Brilliant" Lisbon closed her eyes.

"Are you coming to visit soon? Rose is desperate to meet you"

"I will" Lisbon said quickly "I've looked at some dates"

Lisbon spent the next 10 minutes organising a trip to Chicago and listening to her brother talk about his fiancée. She scribbled down a couple of things once he had hung up, and then Jane appeared at the door again.

"What's that?" he indicated the slip of paper she was just putting into her pocket.

"I'm going to Chicago in a few weeks time" she shrugged "to meet my brother's fiancée"

"Some time off, that'll be good for you"

Lisbon nodded absentmindedly, not pointing out that she was going for the weekend.

"Shall we?" he asked, already picking her jacket up and holding it out for her.

"Let's"

Despite her previous misgivings, their dinner turned out to be really nice. Jane had chosen a restaurant with candlelit tables and little roses in vases – all very romantic.

"You'd better hope no-one from the CBI sees us here" Lisbon muttered as they waited to be seated.

"It's a dinner between friends" he pointed out.

"Friends?" Lisbon raised her eyebrows at him "with roses?"

"Special friends" he grinned back "stop stressing – just enjoy it"

They kissed goodbye in the car park after, and just as Lisbon was about to invite him back to her apartment for the night Jane spoke.

"I've got to get back" he said apologetically "Angela is home tonight, I need to talk to her"

"Oh ok" Lisbon shrugged "thanks for dinner"

"The pleasure was entirely mine" he smiled "I'll see you tomorrow"

"Yeah, night"

Lisbon got back into her car and immediately felt disappointed. They'd had a lovely meal like a normal couple, and then he'd gone and said he needed to get home and talk to his wife.

oooooooooooooooooooo

"Angela?" Jane called as he let himself into his house "you home?"

"Hi" she shouted back "in the kitchen"

Hanging his coat in the hallway and slipping his shoes off, Jane went through to find her.

"Hey" he greeted her "how are you?"

"Alright" she shrugged "It's nice not to be in a hotel for a change. I miss having a kitchen"

"I bet" he nodded.

"I haven't seen you for days"

"I've been busy"

"Do you want some curry?" she asked, pointing at the saucepan "sweet potato"

"I've eaten" he said quickly "Ange…we need to talk"

He took her silence as permission to carry on.

"What are we doing?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean why are we still married? We're not in love, we barely see each other"

Angela stirred her saucepan slowly for a few minutes, and then turned round.

"You're right" she said, a little sadly.

"I know you're in love with Robert"

Angela looked at the floor and nodded, completely unsurprised that he knew about her affair.

"We'll sort it" she said decidedly "you shouldn't be held back by some stupid non-marriage"

"Thanks"

He left the kitchen and headed upstairs. After the day he'd had all he wanted was a hot shower and an early night. He'd sort out his divorce and Lisbon's malcontent tomorrow.

oooooooooooooooooooo

When Jane arrived at work a little late the next morning, the team had already managed to track down the victim's high school friend and pegged him as a possible suspect.

"He looks vile" Van Pelt commented, showing Jane a newspaper article about him "big businessman, but very shady. There've been all sorts of suspicions and speculations but nobody has ever had evidence"

"What sort of suspicions?"

"Blackmail, fraud..." Van Pelt read out "he doesn't seem at all like the sort of person the victim would be friends with"

"People change from high school" Lisbon pointed out "I know I did"

"That's true" Van Pelt admitted.

"Jane, I want you to come and talk to him with me" Lisbon said "Cho too"

"What a great way to start the morning" Jane muttered "I'm driving"

"When hell freezes over"

"It was worth a try"

They arrived outside a large office building in the centre of Sacramento 20 minutes later.

"CBI" Lisbon held up her badge at reception "we need to talk to Brett Finley"

"I'm afraid he's in a meeting right now" the young man said "I can tell him you called by?"

"It's important. We need to talk to him now"

"I'm afraid I can't-"

"Which room is the meeting in?" Jane asked suddenly.

"Sir, I'm sorry but I can't-"

"7, 8, 11, 14…" Jane read off the doors "14. Brilliant, thanks"

Ignoring the receptionist's protests, Jane marched towards room 14 with Cho and Lisbon in tow.

"Brett Finley?" Jane called out as he let himself into the room "would you mind popping out for a second?"

"Who the hell are you?" the man at the head of the table demanded "how did you get in here?"

"Patrick Jane, pleasure to meet you" Jane smiled.

"Mr Finley, we're from the California Bureau of Investigation. Would you mind answering some questions for us? We won't be long" Lisbon stepped in, not trusting Jane not to get himself punched.

The people seated around the table looked around at each other, as Brett Finley turned a little red.

"Could this not have waited? I'm busy"

"I'm afraid not"

Brett muttered something to the man to his right, and then stood up.

"This better not take long"

"Thanks for your co-operation" Lisbon said as Jane waved at the people around the table.

oooooooooooooooooooo

"Finley's alibi checks out" Rigsby told Lisbon later the following morning "there's no way he could have done it"

"Damn" she muttered "I was really hoping it was him"

"I told you" Jane sang from his couch "he doesn't have it in him to murder"

"Boss" Van Pelt said slowly "I've been looking into the victim's past and I came across a murder that happened when he was young"

All but Jane gathered round Van Pelt's desk as she brought up the police report on it.

"A 7 year old boy" Rigsby said quietly "Jesus"

"So what, he may have seen something and years later it's come up?"

"Or he was involved and someone wants revenge" Cho suggested.

"I hope he wasn't involved" Van Pelt said "he seemed like a really nice guy. Apparently he and a friend – a boy a few years older - found the body"

"Who's the friend?"

"Matt Hudson" Van Pelt read out "hold on…I'm sure I came across that name before…"

She typed quickly on the keyboard as the team exchanged glances. Jane finally stood up from his couch, stretched, and joined them.

"Here" she said "he was a new photographer for the agency. Worked with the victim last Thursday"

"It's him" Jane said suddenly.

"Evidence Jane?" Lisbon reminded him.

"He was involved with the boy's murder, obviously the victim had worked it out but it didn't all resurface until he saw him again last week. Probably looked shocked or scared, so he killed him"

"Isn't that a little farfetched?"

"You'd be surprised how much a look can affect someone" Jane shrugged.

"Did anyone talk to Hudson?"

"I did" Rigsby said "he didn't really say much. Said he'd only met him once or twice"

"Liar" Jane said under his breath.

"Let's go talk to him" Lisbon decided "Van Pelt, you come. Jane?"

"Miss the takedown? I think not"

They tried the agency Hudson had just joined, and were told that he hadn't turned up to work that day so they headed to his apartment instead.

"Mr Hudson, this is the CBI. Open up" Lisbon hammered on the door as Jane stood beside her, whistling.

They heard a noise inside the apartment, and Lisbon knocked again.

"Mr Hudson, open up now"

There was another noise and Lisbon looked at Jane.

"Go for it" he said, reading her mind.

She nodded and then threw herself at the door. It broke open in two attempts and then they were in. They saw their man at the kitchen door, and there was a split second between Lisbon spotting the gun in his hand and a loud crack going off.

Lisbon immediately pulled out her gun and jumped behind the couch as Van Pelt raced into the room. Hudson had vanished – assumedly out of the window – and they all waited a few seconds before it was safe to move.

"Go see if you can get him" Lisbon told Van Pelt quickly, who nodded and left "Jane, you ok?"

There was no response from the chair Lisbon knew Jane must be behind.

"Jane?"

There was a groan this time, and she rushed over to him. He was lying on his side, a very obvious red staining his shirt down his side.

"Oh god, Patrick" Lisbon whispered.

"I guess…I guess he got me" Jane struggled to say.

Lisbon pulled her phone out and dialled for an ambulance, then pulled off her own jacket and pressed it to his side to try and slow the flow of blood down.

"You're gonna be ok" she told him repeatedly "you'll be fine" 

"When am I not fine?" he said slowly, managing a small smile.

Lisbon was worried about how pale his face had become. His breathing seemed more laboured, and she could tell he was in a huge amount of pain.

Thankfully the ambulance arrived not too long after. They hauled Jane onto a stretcher and carried him down to the ambulance.

"He's going to be ok, right?" Lisbon demanded as she climbed onto the ambulance after him.

"He doesn't seem to have lost too much blood" the paramedic reassured her "we'll know more once we can see how much damage the bullet did inside"

"Ok" Lisbon nodded and moved to stand near Jane's head. He was still conscious, but he didn't do much but hold eye contact with her. Lisbon grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry for the cliff-hanger! Enjoy (hopefully)!**

The next few hours were tense. The rest of the team joined Lisbon in the waiting room as Jane had surgery. Van Pelt hadn't managed to catch the suspect, but they couldn't care less about that right now. Lisbon was aware that she looked a mess with blood smeared over her top, but she didn't want to leave to wash or change in case there was news.

"He'll be fine" Van Pelt kept saying "won't he?"

"I shouldn't have broken down that door" Lisbon said, shaking her head "we should have worn vests"

"It's not your fault, boss" Van Pelt replied softly "none of us had any idea he was going to react like that"

"Patrick Jane?"

All four turned towards the doctor who had just appeared.

"Yes?" Lisbon stood up and walked quickly over, followed closely by the others.

"He's going to be just fine" the women told her "he was very lucky – the bullet managed to miss all his major organs, and thankfully he didn't lose too much blood so if we're lucky we won't have to do a transfusion"

"Thank god" Lisbon muttered "Is he awake?"

"He's just coming round in recovery"

"Can we see him?"

"Only 2 at a time. He's in room 374"

"Thanks" Lisbon said as the doctor left.

"You two go" Rigsby said quickly, waving at her and Van Pelt "we'll wait here"

Lisbon pushed open the door to Jane's room and smiled with relief when she spotted him in the bed.

"Jane?" she asked softly.

"Teresa" he smiled "I'm alive"

"I can see that"

"Hey Jane" Van Pelt said, following her in "how are you feeling?"

"I'm ok" he slurred a little "they gave me some painkillers. They've made my head all…fuzzy"

"But you're not in pain?" she fretted.

"No no" he said quickly "I feel great"

Lisbon took the seat nearest to his head, and Van Pelt settled into the one beside her.

"Did you get him?" Jane asked "the man…Hudder…Huddy?"

"Hudson?" Lisbon offered.

"Hudson. Ah yes"

"Not yet"

They sat in silence for a few moments, and then Van Pelt excused herself to go to the restroom.

"You really scared me there" Lisbon admitted as soon as she left, reaching out to take his hand.

"I scared me too" he said, squeezing her hand back "but hey, being shot is a new experience right?"

"If you want" Lisbon smiled.

oooooooooooooooooooo

Outside in the waiting room, Van Pelt retook her seat alongside her colleagues.

"Where's Lisbon?" Rigsby asked.

"With Jane. I felt like I was intruding" she admitted.

"I don't blame you. How is he?"

"On some strong painkillers" she sighed "he'll be fine"

"When Lisbon first rung…I thought it might be you. I'm glad you're ok"

"Thanks" she smiled shyly at him.

A tall blond woman rushed past them in the waiting room to the reception.

"Hi, someone called me and said my husband had been brought in" she said quickly, looking around the room as it he may be there "I don't know what happened"

"What's the name?"

"Patrick Jane"

Rigsby, Cho and Van Pelt looked up suddenly.

"Did she just say…?" Rigsby asked.

"I think so" Van Pelt whispered back.

"Excuse me ma'am" Rigsby stood up.

Angela turned round and looked at him for a second.

"You're Patrick's team, aren't you? What happened? Is he ok?"

"He was shot but he's fine. You're his-"

"Wife. Where is he?"

"374" Cho supplied.

"Thanks"

Angela disappeared and the team stared at each other in confusion.

"Jane's married?" Rigsby spoke first "he can't be"

"I thought he and Lisbon…you know"

"They did" Cho agreed.

"Are you sure?"

"Very sure"

"Wow" Rigsby whistled "do you think Lisbon knows?"

"If she doesn't, she's just about to find out" Van Pelt said gravely.

Angela burst into Jane's room without knocking, looking a little surprised to see Lisbon sitting beside him.

Lisbon dropped Jane's hand like it had burnt her and stood up.

"Patrick, what happened?" Angela demanded "are you ok?"

"I got shot" he shrugged "no biggie"

"But you're alright?" she frowned, coming closer and taking the hand Lisbon had just dropped "I was so worried"

"He's on lots of painkillers" Lisbon said quietly, trying to squeeze out between the two chairs.

"Oh! You must be Lisbon! He's talked about you loads"

"It's nice to meet you" Lisbon held out her hand "Angela, right?"

"Yes"

They shook hands, and then Angela turned back to Jane.

"I can't believe this" she sighed, sinking into the chair "when they first called me I thought you'd…well…and then they said you were in hospital and I ran out of the restaurant and came straight away"

"I'll leave you two alone" Lisbon said.

"Lisbon" Jane said "you don't have to-"

"No, I do"

Lisbon had to blink back tears as she left the room. The last thing she had expected was for Jane's wife to turn up, nor for her to be so…nice. And she was utterly beautiful.

She wandered around aimlessly and somehow arrived back at the waiting room.

"Boss?"

Her team were staring at her with varying looks of pity. Van Pelt looked like she was about to cry, Rigsby looked very tense and on edge and Cho looked like…well Cho.

"He's fine" Lisbon repeated Van Pelt's sentiments "he'll be stuck here for a couple of days though"

"This woman came in" Van Pelt began nervously "saying she was Jane's wife. He doesn't have a wife, does her?"

"Angela? Yeah" Lisbon nodded "she's a model" she added, although she wasn't sure why.

"Oh" Van Pelt's eyes widened "I didn't realise. I mean he never mentioned…we just sort of assumed…"

Lisbon was a bit worried that if she tried to say anything back to that she might just burst into tears, so she simply took the empty seat beside Cho.

"You know you can all go home now" she said after a moment "Jane will be fine, there's no need to wait"

"Right, sure" Rigsby nodded, but nobody moved.

"If someone wouldn't mind giving me a lift to my car" she added "Cho?"

"Sure. We going now?"

"No point in waiting, is there?" Lisbon forced a smile.

She had specifically chosen Cho because she knew he wouldn't say anything about Jane's wife or the speculation surrounding their relationship on the way back, as she knew Van Pelt may try to.

oooooooooooooooooooo

That night, Lisbon made a decision: she needed to break things off with Jane right now. The Angela Lisbon had met that day wasn't this distant, cheating, nearly roommate wife Jane had depicted – but this lovely woman who had come rushing to the hospital the moment she heard her husband was hurt. Whatever situation their marriage was in, it was far from whatever Jane had told her. And she had believed every word he had said, like the gullible idiot she was.

She thought back to the time she visited his house. Sure, there weren't many photos of them together but they did have their wedding photo on display for all to see. And there were many perfectly acceptable reasons to have separate bedrooms. How could she not have seen it? She had been too busy letting him fuck her on the kitchen work surface to look for the clues.

Angrily, Lisbon opened a beer and slumped on her couch. She'd had a long day and she just wanted for forget about everything. In situations like this she would normally put a rubbish crime drama on and pick out the inconsistencies, but even watching fake detectives was going to remind her of her stupid consultant. Another option was just to get drunk, but she knew she would end up feeling awful the following day. Plus there was always the risk of drunk calling him.

Instead, she finished her beer and then ran herself a nice, deep bath, changed her sheets to some that didn't smell like Jane and hopped into her bed.

oooooooooooooooooooo

First thing the next morning she returned to the hospital. She knocked lightly on Jane's door and then pushed it open, and was relieved to find that the room was empty aside from Jane. She had been half expecting to find Angela still sitting at his bedside.

"How are you?"

"Painful" he shrugged "I'll live"

"Good" she nodded. She was trying to build up the courage to just do it, but it turned out to be more difficult than she had anticipated.

"Is something wrong?"

"Jane, this has got to stop" Lisbon said quickly, taking the opportunity "we can't see each other any more"

"What? Teresa…you can't just-"

"Why not?" she demanded.

"Because we're good together, and I really-"

"You're married" she pointed out, a little louder than she had intended "and I don't care what you say, you are"

"Where's this all come from? Is this because Angela turned up yesterday" he asked, looking utterly confused.

"Just stop with the excuses Jane; it's over" she cut him off "get well soon"

She turned and left, slamming the door behind her. She could hear his protests as she marched down the hall but she knew he was in no state to chase her.

She didn't stop until she was safely in her car. After a few minutes of breathing to try and stop the tears from escaping, she managed to pull herself together and drive to the CBI.

oooooooooooooooooooo

"Morning" Lisbon greeted her team as she walked into the bullpen "you got anything on Hudson yet?"

"He took out 500 dollars in cash last night" Van Pelt told him.

"So we can't track his credit card movement, brilliant" Lisbon muttered "have you checked flight lists?"

"I have; nothing under his name" 

"Check out any family members, he could be hiding there. Rigsby, come with me back to Hudson's apartment"

As Lisbon and Rigsby were going through Hudson's apartment and desperately looking for any clues as to where he might have gone, her phone rang.

"Lisbon" she answered.

"Teresa, please listen to me"

It was Jane. He must have found a phone from somewhere.

She took the phone away from her ear for a moment and told Rigsby she had to take a call outside.

"What do you want?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Why do you think?" she hissed "You. Are. Married. I don't want to be a part of this any more"

"Why does that suddenly matter so much now? Because you met her?"

"Because you lied to me! Because you said that there was nothing to your relationship, yet she drops everything the moment she hears you're hurt?"

"Teresa, it's not like that" he protested "maybe we're a bit closer than you expected, but there is nothing romantic between us any more. Nothing"

"Then why are you still married? Why do you still act married"

"Because…because I-"

"Because nothing" she broke in "Because you go on about it being this big career thing, but deep down there's something else. You still love her"

"Teresa, please" he was begging now "I don't love her"

"I have work to do, bye"

Lisbon hung up and shoved her phone into her pocket. Why could he not see the massive issue here? It had been completely different when she believed the lies he fed her about his fake marriage and absent wife, but now she'd realised the truth there was no way she could go on with this.

She fell back against the wall and closed her eyes for a few seconds. Her life had gone from mostly ordinary to a complete mess in a matter of months, and it was all thanks to one man. It was exhausting.

"Boss?"

She cracked her eyes open and found Rigsby standing nervously by Hudson's open door.

"I uh…I think I have something" he stuttered "are you ok?"

"Fine" she snapped "what is it?"

"I'll show you"

She took a deep breath and then followed him back in.

"I found these shoved under his mattress, could it be the poison used to kill our victim?"

"Bag them and get them to forensics. How could he have got them to him, though?"

"I was thinking about that" Rigsby said "I mean they were working in the same building, could he not have just slipped it into a bottle of water?"

"We should go back to the agency and ask about that" Lisbon sighed "did you come across anything which could help us find him?"

"Nothing yet"

"Keep looking. I'll check with Van Pelt for an update"

oooooooooooooooooooo

Lisbon stayed late at the CBI to work that night. The team's attempts to track down Hudson had been fruitless so far, and they were currently relying on someone picking something up from the BOLO. There was always paperwork that needed doing though, and for once she was grateful that she could do it and keep her mind off Jane.

He had tried to call her a couple more times that day, but she hadn't even picked up. To be honest, she was more annoyed at herself for not having seen through his constructed 'non-marriage' than anything else. She even wondered whether or not Angela was actually cheating on him - she wouldn't put it past him to lie about that as well. He was a con artist after all; lying was what he did best.

There was a sharp knock at her office door, and for a second she thought it might be Jane. Then she remembered that he was in a hospital bed across the other side of town, and that there was no way he could be here.

"Yes?"

The door opened and Minelli wandered in.

"Oh, hi sir"

"Hello Lisbon. I wanted an update on the Miller case"

"Still trying to track Hudson down" she sighed "and now he's wanted for attempted murder as well as being a murder suspect in two other cases"

"Speaking of which, how's Jane doing?"

"Fine" she said quickly "the doctors say he should be able to go home within the week but he won't be allowed back to work for at least three weeks, maybe more depending on recovery"

All of which she knew from a quick call to his doctor this morning, not able to bring herself to actually talk to Jane about it. That gave her a month or more completely free of Jane.

"It could be worse I suppose"

"He was very lucky"

"You been to see him today?" Minelli asked her, resting on the edge of her desk in front of her.

"This morning, just to check. He seemed alright"

"Hmmm, good" he nodded absentmindedly "you should go home Lisbon, get some rest"

"I'm _fine_ sir" Lisbon reminded him.

"It's nearly 10"

"I'll survive" she shrugged "this needs doing for tomorrow, anyway"

"Ah they can survive without their precious paperwork for a day" Minelli waved his hand at it "I'm not having my best SCU team run by a sleep-deprived zombie"

He stood up from the table and stretched.

"I'd better get going, as should you" he warned "night Lisbon"

"Night boss"

oooooooooooooooooooo

Life without Jane was a lot calmer, Lisbon soon discovered. She could go and visit suspects or families without fear of getting a new heap of complaint paperwork, and she worried a lot less about her consultant getting himself beaten up on a weekly basis. What she wasn't expecting was to miss him so much. Even though he had only been with the team for about 5 months, it did feel a little…empty without the annoying comments or bizarre plans. She also noticed an obvious drop in their case closed rate, but it was countered by the lack of complaint paperwork she had to complete.

Jane had given up trying to ring her after a week. She had half expected him to turn up on her doorstep the moment he was allowed out of hospital, but realistically he was in no state to do any walking around. That and the fact that he probably didn't care as much as she seemed to think he did.

She had rung up the hospital to check on his progress every few days (as a team leader should), but she refused to go back and see him. She didn't want to face him again right now, and the risk of bumping into Angela again was much too high. So instead she threw herself into her work. She exercised more; now that less of her time was taken up by complaint paperwork and Jane. She had even booked flights and finalised plans to go and visit her brother and his fiancée – a trip which she was only half dreading now.

Jane on the other hand, was not faring so well. He had been made to stay in hospital an extra two days for observation, and was only allowed home under the strict instructions that he was not to move from his bed except to use the bathroom until they were confident that his stitches wouldn't fail. Angela had even cancelled a job that week so that she could stay at home and look after him, but in many ways that just made everything worse.

He hated remembering the look on Lisbon's face when Angela had turned up in his hospital room, and the tears he knew she was holding back as she left. He could see exactly what it looked like to her, and he needed to talk to her and explain what was really going on – but he also had to wait until she had calmed down a bit, and he was able to leave his bed.

The only positive thing right now was that his divorce was in the process of taking place, but what was the point of that if Lisbon wanted nothing to do with him any more? He'd probably never see Angela again once the divorce was finalised and the house sold, and although that shouldn't bother him it did a little bit. Since they had drifted apart romantically they had become closer platonically. They were _friends_. Sure, friends with a complicated relationship, but friends none the less. If only he'd explained it to Lisbon exactly as it was, and not tried to exaggerate so she would feel more comfortable with him.

oooooooooooooooooooo

"Reese!"

Lisbon turned towards the voice, barely having time to spot the person flying towards her before she was engulfed in a bear hug.

"Hey Jimmy"

"I'm so happy to see you" he said, letting go of his sister "how are you? How was your flight?"

"I'm good" she nodded "how are you? Where's this fiancée of yours?"

"She's at work right now" he explained "she's be home straight after though, in a few hours"

"Cool, we going back there now?"

"Sure"

"Can I grab a coffee first?"

"Course, I think saw a place on the way in"

After Lisbon had had a chance to refuel herself, James drove her back to the apartment he now shared with Rose. Lisbon was surprised; it wasn't what she expected of James at all, but it was lovely nonetheless.

"I didn't have a great deal of input in the decorating" he explained as he saw his sister looking around in surprise "it's nice isn't it?"

"It's really nice" she agreed.

"It even has a spare room" he continued "We can grab your stuff later. I'll show you around first"

"So, what's up in your life sis?" James asked as they sat down in the kitchen, his tour complete "I wasn't actually expecting you to come and visit"

Ignoring the wave of guilt that hit her, Lisbon took a sip of her water and then spoke.

"Not much" she shrugged.

"And that guy…thing? The married one"

Lisbon nearly chocked on her next mouthful of water. She had completely forgotten telling James all about that.

"Ah that. It's over" she said simply.

"I'm glad, sis, both me and Tommy thought that-"

"You told Tommy? Since when did you two even talk anyway?"

"We sorted stuff out between us a couple of months ago. Rose persuaded me to actually, said she'd have loved to get to know her siblings and that I'm lucky to have mine – she was adopted as a child, I don't think I mentioned"

"Huh" Lisbon nodded, unsure as to how to react to this 'new' James.

"But anyway, both of us thought that it was a bad idea. You deserve someone so much better than that, and the stupid excuse about not divorcing his wife? What even is-"

"I get it, James" Lisbon snapped.

"Right, sure. Sorry" he muttered.

They sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes, Lisbon purposefully ignoring her brother who was shooting her nervous glances every now and then.

"You ok with takeout this evening?" he asked eventually.

"Sure" she nodded "look, I'm sorry for snapping at you"

"It's ok Reese"

"I shouldn't have done, you're just looking out for me"

"I think there's a game on this afternoon" he said tentatively "Patriots vs Cowboys, you wanna watch that?"

They were halfway through the game when Rose returned home that evening. Lisbon suddenly felt very uncomfortable about meeting this woman she'd heard so much about, and she wasn't expecting in the slightest to see this petite figure with masses of curly brown hair racing past the living room door.

A few minutes later, she appeared at the door.

"Sorry, I was desperate for the bathroom" she apologised "I'm Rose, you're Teresa right?"

"It's nice to meet you"

"I've heard so much about you" Rose continued, coming to sit down beside James who greeted her with a kiss on the cheek "James is always telling me about his cop sister chasing down bad guys all over California"

"He's told me lots about you too" Lisbon smiled, feeling a lot more comfortable in this woman's presence.

"Oh god" Rose grimaced "I think I'd rather not know what he's said"

"All nice of course" Lisbon reassured her.

Rose shot her fiancé an unconvinced glare, and then turned back to Lisbon.

"So what's it like, living in California? I've always wanted to visit"

"It's good" she shrugged "hotter than Chicago, but the pizza just isn't the same"

"I'm too pale to enjoy the heat" Rose joked.

"So am I really" Lisbon agreed with a smile "I just thank whoever invented sun lotion"

"How was work?" James asked Rose, putting his arm around her and hugging her to him.

"Alright" she sighed "sorry for having to run out like that. I thought I had sorted everything yesterday, but Jake couldn't be bothered to do his bit and as usual I got dragged in on my day off"

"What do you do?" Lisbon asked.

"I work for an advertising firm at the moment"

"She's going back to college next year though, in a few years I'll be married to a Dr" James said proudly.

"You're going to med school?"

"I've told you to stop saying the 'Dr' thing" Rose groaned to her fiancé "I'm doing a PhD in Art History, nowhere near med school"

"That's cool" Lisbon raised her eyebrows "I took an Art History class at college, it was really interesting"

"I don't mean to interrupt but I'm kind of starving here" James said "pizza ok sis?"

"God yes, I haven't had a proper Chicago pizza for years"

"I'll have Margarita" Rose decided quickly "and Bruschetta. I've been dreaming of it all day"

Lisbon chose what she wanted and then James left her alone with Rose. They stared around the room for a little, until Rose spoke again.

"I have to admit, I was kind of scared of meeting you"

"Me?" Lisbon snorted.

"James really looks up to you" she nodded quickly "and you do carry a gun around"

"I left my gun at home this time"

"Well that's a relief" Rose laughed slightly "but seriously, you seemed so…I don't know, cool and sorted and it's kind of intimidating"

"That's funny" Lisbon started picking at her sleeve "I thought the same thing about you"

"I'm not sorted" Rose reassured her quickly "not at all"

"Well you make Jimmy happy, you can't be that bad"

"He's just a great person" she smiled "you must be proud"

"I just can't believe you got him talking to Tommy again"

"It took a lot of persuading" she admitted "but I'm so glad he listened"

"That'll be 20 minutes" James said as he walked back in and took his seat beside Rose.

"We were just talking about you" Rose said slyly, nudging him in the side "if you cover your ears we can carry on"

James looked at his sister and his fiancé, and then shook his head.

"I knew that leaving you alone together was a bad idea"


	6. Chapter 6

**I've been so busy sorting out jobs and working to update, but here we are finally! Although it's a minor mention, I'm claiming Artistic Licence for divorce procedure in California (just in case anyone happens to know about it and realises that the timeline is way off)**

It had now been 4 weeks since Lisbon had heard anything from Jane or his doctor. She knew that he had been at home for 3 of them, and she was starting to wonder if she just ring up and check he was doing ok – from an entirely professional point of view.

The weekend away in Chicago had done her a lot of good. She pondered whether or not she should go away a little more often, it was amazing how much calmer she felt after only two days. She was also glad to have met her future sister in law, and to discover that they got on like a house on fire. Rose was funny and switched on, and a little bit quirky – but she balanced out Lisbon's little brother perfectly.

The time away had also given her a chance to sort out her head regarding Jane. She was fairly sure he would be back at the CBI within the next couple of weeks (unless he had quit and nobody had thought to tell her), and she had been dreading having to face him. Now she knew that when he came back they would be back to the professional relationship they should have kept from the start. She could put aside her anger at his lying and focus on using his skills to catch criminals.

That didn't mean that she was quite brave enough to ring and check up on him though.

"Cho" Lisbon said, wandering out into the bullpen "would you mind ringing Jane and check how he's doing? I've got to sort out things for court tomorrow"

"Sure" Cho replied, thankfully not questioning her excuse.

Lisbon was just about to return to her office when she caught sight of Van Pelt, who's sniffing and red eyes immediately indicated that something wasn't right.

"Grace" she said softly "you ok?"

"I'm fine" she replied quickly, with another sniff "it's nothing"

"Are you sure? If you need to talk about it…my door is always open"

Van Pelt looked around the bullpen, catching Rigsby's eye for a second and then wordlessly stood up and made her way to Lisbon's office. Lisbon mouthed 'what's going on?' to Rigsby who simply shrugged in response, before quickly following the redhead.

The moment the door was shut Van Pelt's tears started running and she started to explain all about her dad being ill and her troubles finding a new apartment and her boyfriend of two years who had invited her for dinner and then broken up with her when she had been expecting a proposal. Lisbon handed her tissues and rubbed her shoulder, but internally berated herself for not just leaving it. She wasn't the best at comforting crying women, especially not when it came to men.

"I just don't know what I could have done" Van Pelt wailed "we were doing so well, and then he just left me"

"It'll be ok" Lisbon said, a little awkwardly.

"I'm sorry for falling apart like this" Van Pelt said as she wiped up her face with a tissue.

"Don't worry about it" Lisbon reassured her "do you want a drink? I'll go and get you some water"

Lisbon ignored Van Pelt's protests and left her office to go and find a bottle of water.

"Jane's doing fine" Cho told her on her way back "he needs to be cleared to come back to work, which he's expecting to be at the start of next week"

"Wow, he's actually following rules for once" Lisbon muttered.

"Apparently his wife made him" Cho said simply.

"Great, thanks Cho"

"Is Grace ok?" Rigsby asked, shooting concerned glances at Lisbon's office.

"She's alright" Lisbon reassured him "she's just a little emotional"

Lisbon returned to her office where Van Pelt had managed to sort herself out and was now fiddling absentmindedly with a piece of tissue.

"Thanks" she said as Lisbon handed her a bottle of water "for all of that. I'm sorry"

"Don't be sorry"

"I better get back and finish looking into those card transactions" Van Pelt sighed.

"Yeah, although I'd be very surprised if he was anything to do with the murder"

"It's a shame Jane isn't here to be our lie detector"

"Hmm" Lisbon nodded, sitting down at her desk.

Taking this as her cue to leave, Van Pelt thanked her once again and then returned to the bullpen where she quickly reassured Rigsby that there was nothing wrong. Lisbon turned on her computer and pulled up her emails, still thinking about what Cho had said. Even though she knew that she had no right to be annoyed that Angela was with Jane, she did for some reason. It was probably just the sharp guilt and anger that seemed to appear whenever she thought about the whole situation.

oooooooooooooooooooo

The last person Lisbon expected to see when she pulled up to a crime scene at 6am in the middle of the following week, was Patrick Jane. He was standing with his back to her, surveying something Lisbon couldn't see on the ground in front of him. For a second Lisbon contemplated bolting, then she remembered that she was a CBI team leader and she couldn't just run from a crime scene because her consultant was there.

Instead, she killed the engine on her car and got out.

"Morning"

"Hey Lisbon" Jane replied without even turning round "long time no see"

"You're all better are you?"

"Almost" he shrugged as she came nearer.

"Good" she said firmly "alright Rigsby, what have we got here?"

"About 30% of a victim" Rigsby explained, leading her over to an errant chunk of arm and a head.

"Woah" Lisbon muttered, her eyes widening.

"Yup" Rigsby sighed.

"Start searching nearby for any more…parts" Lisbon ordered "take Van Pelt" she added as the woman in question appeared at the crime scene.

"No problem boss"

"They were left here on purpose"

Lisbon turned back to Jane.

"What?" she asked.

"Those body parts. They were left here to be found" he explained.

"How do you know?"

"There's a trail of blood right here" he pointed at the ground in front of him "coming from the road where it stops. As if someone has driven and dropped them off"

"Why do that? A warning? Messing with us?" 

"Who knows yet? I would say a warning so far, but not for us"

"Hmm" Lisbon nodded, looking around on the ground for any more clues.

"Teresa?" Jane said tentatively "Can we talk? I need to…explain some things"

"No" she said quickly "there's nothing to explain. I'm your boss, you're my consultant"

"That's not what you've said before" he muttered so she could only just hear.

"I'm going to the CBI" she announced "you've messed around with me enough. Just leave me alone"

Jane sighed as she stomped away. He had hoped that their time apart would make her slightly more amenable to his attempts to win her back, apparently she'd decided to pretend it had never happened instead. Still, he was nothing if not determined.

When he got back to the CBI Jane waited until Lisbon left her office to use the restroom, before sneaking in and leaving a freshly made cup of coffee on her desk alongside a blueberry muffin from her favourite bakery. He'd picked the muffin up on the way to the CBI, aware that he would need more than just his natural charm to get her to even speak properly to him again. Then he settled down on his couch and watched with one eye as she returned. She spotted the items as soon as she returned, glanced at him, and then picked them up and marched out of the office. Jane closed both his eyes and faked sleep in case she tried to confront him, but she walked past him. When he thought it was safe to open an eye Lisbon was in the kitchen pouring the coffee down the sink before she placed the muffin on the table with a 'help yourself' note beside it.

So much for that plan.

oooooooooooooooooooo

As Lisbon quickly discovered, Jane did not make it easy for her to avoid him over the next few weeks. He seemed to alternate between being immensely difficult to work with (and stacking up a record number of complaints), and doing random little lovely things which she pretended to ignore. Origami animals popped up in various places, and her favourite coffee and snacks kept finding their way into her office or car. Their case closed rate had increased fairly rapidly though, and Minelli seemed happy – despite all the complaints.

The one thing he hadn't done was forced her to sit down and talk to him, like he had in the past. Maybe he simply didn't care that much, Lisbon thought angrily to herself. Maybe she had been stupidly naïve to think that he actually liked her.

"Boss"

Cho forced her back to reality.

"What is it?" she asked wearily.

"Forensics report is in. The gunshot wound was what killed him"

"Well that's a relief" she muttered "kind of. Have you talked to the colleagues yet?"

"Not yet, I was just about to"

"Don't worry, I'll go" she said, standing up "I better take Jane" she added reluctantly.

"He's already taken 50 bucks from Rigsby in some dice game"

"I'll go and save Rigsby, whilst he's got some money left" she sighed.

Cho nodded and then followed her out of her office, holding back a smile as he watched Rigsby hand over yet another note to Jane.

"Jane, you're coming with me"

"Oh good, trip time" Jane said as he tucked the note in his pocket and then rubbed his hands together in anticipation "where are we going?"

"The victim's workplace, I'll meet you at the car in 5 minutes"

Lisbon made herself a coffee in her travel mug, and then noticed Jane was hanging around the kitchen, watching her.

"What are you doing?"

"Waiting. You know, I left a perfectly good coffee on your desk little over an hour again"

"Oh did you? I didn't see it" Lisbon feigned innocence.

"Please Teresa, can we stop this? If you just let me ex-"

"No"

Jane sighed and looked at the ground. There was no point arguing with her, and he wasn't going to force her to listen to him. Even though she'd misinterpreted the whole situation, she did still have good reason to be annoyed at him.

"Ok, let's go" Lisbon said as she placed the lid on her mug and then picked up her bag.

The car drive was spent in an awkward silence. Jane knew better to try and speak to her at this point, and Lisbon made an effort not to snap at him for fiddling with the radio or tapping repeatedly on the dashboard.

"Good morning, welcome to Forner's" the woman at the desk greeted them.

"CBI" Lisbon held up her badge "I'm Agent Teresa Lisbon and this is Patrick Jane. We're investigating the death of James Warner, would we be able to talk to his colleagues?"

"Of course, of course" the woman nodded "I'll call someone down. It was such a tragedy, James was always so nice to chat to and…"

A few minutes later, a tall, dark haired man appeared in front of them.

"Hi, you must be the Agents?"

"Agent" Jane hastened to correct him "I'm a consultant, Patrick Jane"

"Teresa Lisbon" Lisbon introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you" the man held out his hand "I'm Matthew Jason's, a colleague of James'"

"So how well did you know Mr Warner?" Lisbon fell into step with him as he led them towards the stairs.

"Not that well at all" he admitted "he only joined a few months ago"

"He was new to the job?" Lisbon frowned "his family told us he'd worked here for years"

"For the company, yes, but he transferred from the LA office recently"

"Do you know why?"

"Promotion I think? You'd have to check with Smith, his boss"

"What was he like at work?"

"Seemed nice enough I guess, I only talked to him once or twice though"

"People aren't always what they seem" Jane put in.

"No" Lisbon glared at him "they're not"

"This is…was James' desk"

"Do you mind if we have a quick look around it?" Lisbon asked, surveying the orderly surface.

"Go right ahead" Matthew motioned.

Lisbon looked through the stack of files, and then opened and closed a couple of drawers. Jane watched her with a frown on his face the whole time.

"Anything, Jane?"

"Why don't you go and talk to the boss" he suggested "I'll wait here for a bit"

"Behave" she warned him "Where would we find Mr Warner's boss?" she asked Matthew.

"I'll take you" he offered "so that consultant guy, what exactly does he do?"

"God knows" she muttered under her breath "he helps us solve crimes. He's good at reading people"

"Does he always come off as…slightly hostile?" Matthew asked slowly.

So apparently the man had noticed the weird looks and subtle comments Jane had made towards him for no reason.

"He's…an interesting character" Lisbon said carefully.

"Sure" Matthew nodded "This is Smith's office"

"Great, thanks"

"I uh...this may be a little forward, but is there any chance you want to go for a drink sometime?"

Lisbon froze. She had not expected that at all.

"Don't worry if not" Matthew reassured her quickly, obviously taking her silence as a rejection "sorry, I know that was out of line. Forget I said anything"

He turned to leave again, when Lisbon's wits returned and she called after him.

"I'd like a drink"

He turned back and smiled at her.

"Do you mind if I take your number?"

"Sure, actually I have a card somewhere here" she dug around in her pockets until she found the little card rectangle "here"

"Thanks" he looked at it and then tucked it into his pocket.

The talk with their victim's boss unveiled little more than they already knew about him. Lisbon just hoped Jane had picked up something of use from his desk. As much of a pain as he could be to work with sometimes, she couldn't deny that he got results.

When Lisbon finished talking to Smith she found Jane and Matthew standing beside the victim's desk, not saying a word to one another.

"You done Jane?" Lisbon asked.

"Yup" he nodded "let's go, I'm starving"

"I'll walk you out" Mathew offered, shooting Lisbon a little smile.

Jane stared at him for a second, and then shook his head and walked off.

When they reached the ground floor Lisbon thanked Matthew for his help, asking him to contact them if he thought of anything else relevant.

"It was lovely to meet you" he smiled widely at her.

"Dinner?" Jane asked the moment they were out of earshot "you're going for dinner, with him?"

"What's wrong with that? And no actually, just a drink"

"Isn't he a bit…I don't know, smarmy workaholic for you?"

"Maybe that's my type. And he's not smarmy, or a workaholic anyway. He's a good looking, likeable man"

"I know exactly what your type is" Jane said quietly.

"What, married conmen who lie to me? Don't flatter yourself" she snorted "we slept together, now we don't. There's nothing more to it"

"You can't lie to me Lisbon" Jane said in a sing-song voice as they climbed into the car "I know it meant more to you than that"

Lisbon decided to ignore him and turned the radio on loud. She normally detested the never-ending cacophony of pop love songs on the radio, but for once she welcomed them over Jane's attempts to get inside her head.

oooooooooooooooooooo

Matthew rang Lisbon up that afternoon, as she was in the kitchen getting a bottle of water.

"Lisbon" she answered, not recognising the number which appeared.

"Um hi, this is Matthew? From Forner's? We met this morning"

"Oh hi" Lisbon warmed up immediately.

"I just wondered if you were around for that drink, maybe Thursday or Friday?"

"Thursday works for me" Lisbon replied, quickly thinking through anything she might have on then.

"Oh, that's great. You know the bar up near…"

Jane walked in towards the end of her conversation, just as she was confirming a time and saying goodbye. She hung up and put her phone back in her pocket, awaiting Jane's remark. Weirdly, he said nothing about it and went about making his tea as normal.

After a few seconds of watching him, Lisbon returned to her office. They had a case to solve.

oooooooooooooooooooo

"Boss, I just got a call from Sac PD. They've found pieces of a corpse in a dumpster downtown, think it might be ours?" Cho told Lisbon as she passed through the bullpen. Two days had passed since they had first got the case, and they were yet to get an ID on their partial victim.

"You and Rigsby go check it out" Lisbon ordered "make sure forensics sends us a report so we can check if it's part of our case"

"They found it in a dumpster?" Jane asked, standing up from his couch and stretching.

"Yup"

"I'm coming along"

Cho looked at Lisbon for an answer.

"I have a hunch" Jane insisted.

"Take Jane" she sighed "try not to let him piss anyone off too much"

"Cool" Cho nodded and picked up his jacket.

"Can I drive?" Jane asked.

"No"

"Why not?" 

"Because I don't want you driving me"

"We'll get there faster" Jane pointed out.

"Still no"

Lisbon heard Jane's attempts and Cho's refusals all the way until they got in the elevator, with Rigsby followed with a bemused smile on his face.

"Grace…you ok now?" Lisbon asked as soon as it was just the two of them.

"Yeah, much better thanks" the redhead smiled at her "I've got a new apartment sorted at least"

"I'm glad"

"And as for Mike, who needs a husband anyway? I certainly don't" she continued.

"No" Lisbon nodded in agreement "me neither"

oooooooooooooooooooo

"Patrick? You here?" Angela called as she closed the front door to their house.

When nobody responded, she walked down the hallway and stuck her head in the living room. Jane was seated on the armchair; with some quiz show on the telly and a half empty beer in his hand.

"You ok?" she asked. It was unlike him to drink beer, and especially not in the week "should you really be drinking that? You're still on those meds"

"No, probably not" he sighed, taking another sip regardless "what do doctors really know, eh?"

"What's up, Patrick?"

"Nothing" Jane sighed "a long day, that's all"

"Look, I'm going to put my stuff down and grab a glass of wine and then you're going to tell me exactly what's going on" Angela decided. As much as her (soon to be ex) husband thought he was good at hiding things, she could usually see right through him and right now it was clear to her that there was something wrong.

When she returned a few minutes later, a small glass of white wine in hand, Jane didn't appear to have moved a muscle.

"Right, what's happened? Is it something to do with a case?" she demanded.

"Yep" he said "Just a difficult case. It's nothing"

"It's not nothing, it's…hold on, this isn't about a case."

When he didn't answer, Angela decided to continue.

"This is about a woman, isn't it?"

Jane shrugged and sipped his beer again. It was surprisingly difficult to hide anything from Angela, who had shown herself to be almost as perceptive as him at points.

"Is it that Agent one, Lisbon? You like her, don't you?"

"Seems a little off to be talking about my feelings for another woman with my wife, doesn't it?" he forced a smile.

"You do like her!" Angela exclaimed "I did wonder when I saw you together at the hospital…but I was more focussed on what had happened right then"

"I guess you've sent off your side of the final divorce papers then" he muttered "yes, I like Lisbon. A lot, actually"

"And that's a problem why?" Angela pressed "because you work together? Because you're married?"

"Because she doesn't believe that what we have isn't an actual marriage" he explained eventually "that day you came to the hospital…that was when it all fell apart"

"That's ridiculous" Angela said quickly "I mean in a few weeks we won't even be married any more"

"Lisbon doesn't know that"

"Then tell her!" Angela pointed out.

"Why are you so excited over this?" Jane asked, his eyebrows raised "you and I are actually still married, you know"

"You deserve a proper relationship, god knows ours wasn't one" she shrugged.

"No, it wasn't" he agreed "thanks for your help, I think I'm all fixed now" he placed his beer bottle on the table.

"What are you going to do then?" Angela asked, taking a sip of her wine "all you've done is told me what's wrong, and even then in your weird way. We need a solution"

"I don't know yet" he admitted "and since when did this become 'we'?"

"Since I held you back from living your own life for years" she reminded him "you need to go and see her right now and explain everything"

"I can't" Jane sighed, sinking back into his chair slightly.

"Why not?"

"Because right now, she's on a date with Mr Workaholic from some case"

"Then go stop the date!"

"This isn't one of those trashy romantic films you love, Ange" Jane reminded her "things don't work like that in real life. She'd punch me, and I do quite like having teeth"

"You have to do something"

"Maybe I can't" he shrugged "maybe I've messed it up too much, and I'm just too late"

"We both know that's not true"

"Look, I don't want to talk about it any more. I'm going for a walk"

"Patrick…" Angela protested as he stood up and stretched.

"Go and get ready for your dinner" he told her "I know you're seeing Robert later. I guess I'll see you in a few days"

"Good luck" she called after him as he left the room.

When Jane returned home from his walk later that evening, Angela had long since left. A quick peek into her room told him that she'd probably be gone for about a week - not that he minded; Robert had an apartment out in San Francisco, she was probably staying out there with him.

It was nearly 11pm, and Jane could just picture Lisbon leaving the bar with her date. She'd probably worn that little red dress he'd come across in her closet, or maybe the longer green one which he was sure would cling so delightfully to her body. Whichever it was, it should have been him out with her tonight, not that Matthew guy. He'd probably even pretended to be the gentleman and offered to drop her home, and then invited himself in for 'coffee'. Jane didn't even want to think about where else their date could have gone.

oooooooooooooooooooo

Lisbon was bored stiff. Jane had been so right about this guy – he hadn't shut up about his job for nearly an hour now, and before that all he seemed to have talked about was himself. He'd asked her a handful of questions about her job and the case (most of which she couldn't answer because the case was still open), but beyond that she'd said little more all evening than a few 'oh really?'s and 'that's interesting's.

Now, he was sitting uncomfortably close to her with his hand resting on her leg and telling her some long winded story about a colleague of his. As he shifted slightly in his seat his hand slid up her leg a few inches, and Lisbon fought the urge to shove it off.

"…and he'd left it in the hotel room! In Brazil!"

Lisbon forced out a fake laugh, and then quickly disguised the yawn that followed.

"Do you think we should call it a night?" she suggested "It's late, and I have work tomorrow…"

"No problem" he grinned "I'll get the bill"

"Let me pay half"

"It's my treat"

"If you insist" she shrugged. Normally she wouldn't let him get away with paying, but she felt like she deserved it after what she had had to put up with all evening.

Matthew also insisted on sharing a taxi back with her, where he slid in right beside her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Lisbon gritted her teeth and told herself that it was only a 10 minute journey.

"I had a really nice evening" he said as the cab pulled up outside Lisbon's apartment complex "it seems a shame that it's coming to an end so early"

"It's nearly half eleven" Lisbon pointed out as she picked her bag up from the floor.

"I could come in for a nightcap" he suggested as he climbed out to let her get out.

"I have work early tomorrow" Lisbon politely declined "sorry"

"No biggie" he shrugged "I've got that big report due in soon, you know that one I told you about?"

"I know" she nodded "so uh…night"

"Night" he leant in and kissed her on the cheek, and then looked like he was going in for a second kiss as Lisbon stepped back.

"Maybe we could meet again sometime?" he suggested hopefully "dinner?"

"Maybe" Lisbon responded as she turned to walk away.

She heard Matthew call 'bye' to her a couple more times, and then the cab drive away. She breathed a sigh of relief that the evening was finally over as she started to climb the stairs to her apartment. When she rounded the corner to her apartment door, she nearly jumped when she spotted a figure seated in front of it.

"Hello?" she called from a few metres away, he hand on the gun tucked into her bag "who's there?"

"You're Agent Lisbon, right? I have got the right number haven't I?"

"Angela?" Lisbon frowned as the figure stood up "what are you doing here?" 

"We need to talk"


	7. Chapter 7

"Is it about Jane? Is he ok?"

"He's fine" Angela waved her hand to dispel her worries "but it is about him"

"Can it wait till tomorrow? It's late, I'm tired…" Lisbon said quietly as she tried to find her keys "I can ring you tomorrow, or give you my boss's number. He'll probably be more help"

"It's not a work thing" Angela said, suddenly realising why Lisbon didn't want to talk to her "I know about you and Patrick, but it's fine"

"There is no me and Patrick" Lisbon said quickly "I don't know what he's said but I-"

"He's in love with you"

Lisbon froze, mid search for her keys. She hadn't been expecting that.

"He didn't tell me" Angela explained quickly "in fact I don't think he's even admitted it to himself yet, but he is. I can tell"

"But you…you're married"

"He said there was a misunderstanding there" Angela nodded, smiling.

"I don't understand" Lisbon said slowly "when you came to the hospital…"

"I was worried about him" Angela shrugged "he's still a close friend and I'd just been told he was shot. Plus I had to keep appearances up; I had no idea that there was something going on between the two of you until after"

Lisbon said nothing as she finally managed to extract the keys from her bag.

"Do you mind if we step inside? It's kind of cold out here" Angela asked.

"Sure" Lisbon muttered as she opened the door "why have you come here and told me this? I still don't get it" 

"Because I really want you to give him another chance" Angela explained, following her into the apartment "I know he's messed up a bit, but I feel partially responsible for that. I should have suggested we get divorced years ago"

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" Lisbon asked, narrowing her eyes at her "he could have…I don't know, hypnotised you into this"

"Look at this" Angela dug through her handbag, and then handed a piece of paper to her.

Lisbon read it carefully in the dim light of her apartment, and then wordlessly handed it back.

"The divorce is very real" Angela told her, tucking it away "they're expecting it to go through within the next few weeks"

"That doesn't negate the fact that he lied to me" Lisbon pointed out "he didn't even tell me he was married the first time. And he still said you two were 'roommates on a good day'"

"He's never liked the thought that anyone could get slightly close to him" Angela rolled her eyes "why do you think he stayed married all this time? Because it gave him the perfect excuse _not_ to get close to people. We are good friends – even if he won't admit it – but that's all. That's all it ever was, really"

Lisbon dropped her bag onto the couch, her mind going over everything Angela had just told her.

"Thanks for telling me all of this, I guess" she said eventually "even if Patrick is too much of a coward to come himself"

"Oh he has no idea I came" Angela told her quickly "actually I'd rather you didn't mention it. He's at home, moping around and saying he's ruined his chances with you"

"And you think he hasn't?" Lisbon asked with a slight smile.

"I wouldn't blame you in the slightest if you never spoke to him again" Angela admitted "but I hope you won't do that. Patrick is a good man, however much he likes to hide it"

"I um…I'll try to think things over" Lisbon decided eventually.

"Sorry, I'll leave you alone now. I need to get out to San Francisco anyway"

"Thanks for coming to see me. Jane shouldn't have let you go" she joked.

"Just…give him a chance. He never had malicious intentions, however stupid he may have been"

"Thanks" Lisbon nodded, as she followed Angela back to the door.

oooooooooooooooooooo

"Morning" Lisbon called out cheerfully as she walked past the bullpen "muffin anyone?"

"I'll have a muffin" Rigsby replied quickly, jumping up to take one "what's the occasion?"

"It's Friday" Lisbon shrugged "Van Pelt and Jane not here yet?"

"Nope" Rigsby replied through a mouthful of blueberry muffin.

"Cho?"

Cho selected a chocolate muffin from the box, and then thanked her.

"I'll leave the rest here" Lisbon told them as she took one out for herself "try and save some for the others, Rigsby" she warned jokingly.

"She's in a good mood" Rigsby commented once his boss was out of earshot "I wonder why"

"She had a date last night, maybe it went well" Cho suggested.

"I din' know she was scheeing anyone" Rigsby said, just after having taken another bite.

"Some guy from a case" Cho elaborated "I overheard her organising it the other day"

"Huh" Rigsby shrugged "good for her"

"Good for who?" Jane asked as he walked in on the end of their conversation.

"Lisbon" Cho filled in "she had a date, and now she's in a good mood"

"Oh, is she?" Jane asked nonchalantly "ooh, muffins"

"Do you think she got laid?" Rigsby joked.

"Dude, that's the boss" Cho muttered "It's none of our business"

"Lisbon wouldn't put out on the first date" Jane commented.

"That's not what I heard" Rigsby said under his breath.

"What do you mean?"

"I uhh…just that she doesn't seem like the type" Rigsby spluttered.

"There's more than it to that" Jane pushed, taking a bite from his muffin "what is it?"

"It's um…it's nothing" Rigsby said, his face starting to redden a little.

"I can just mention to Van Pelt your substantial crush on her" Jane suggested "or you could tell me whatever it is"

"You wouldn't"

"Try me"

"Ok" Rigsby sighed "well uh, on that first case you consulted for us, Cho mentioned overhearing…you and Lisbon"

"Lisbon and I?"

"In her hotel room" he clarified "doing uh…stuff"

"Oh" Jane raised his eyebrows "I didn't realise you knew"

Lisbon can't have known either, or he'd be long dead by now.

"Thanks for ratting me out, man" Cho said without looking up from the page he was reading.

"Hey guys" Van Pelt joined in "what's up?"

"Just discussing how everyone knows the intimate details of my sex life" Jane told her as he lay back on his couch.

"Oh" Van Pelt looked surprised "we do?"

"So it seems" Jane told her, his eyes now closed "I'm having a nap now, if you don't mind"

Van Pelt shot Rigsby a questioning look, to which he responded with a shrug and bewildered expression.

oooooooooooooooooooo

"So how was it, your date last night?" Jane asked Lisbon later that day as he lounged on the couch in her office. He was struggling to read her body language to tell how it had gone, and his curiosity had finally got the better of him. Weirdly she hadn't kicked him out of her office – she normally had long before now.

"Oh you know, good" she shrugged.

"Oh really?" he asked, fairly sure she was lying "he didn't talk about his job too much?"

"A little" Lisbon replied, her voice much too high for honesty "it was interesting"

"Liar" Jane muttered.

"I am not"

"You so are. You had an awful evening, but you just want me to be jealous"

"Like I care what you think. And if you don't believe me then I think I'll ring up and organise another date. Right now in fact"

"You don't have to do that to yourself. I'm already sufficiently jealous that some guy got to spend the evening with you in that little dress"

"How do you know that he didn't see more than the dress?" Lisbon dared to say.

"Fair play"

Jane was amazed at how Lisbon was actually letting him go on with his flirtatious banter. Normally she'd have shut him down or ignored him until he gave up. Maybe she'd had a change of heart about him. He could only hope.

"Leave me alone now, I'm trying to work" she said "go bug the others"

"You're much more fun to bug"

"Jane" she warned.

"Alright, alright" he lay back on the couch "I'll just solve the case then"

"If you could"

oooooooooooooooooooo

After thinking through what Angela had told her the previous night, Lisbon decided she wasn't going to mention anything to Jane quite yet. He had still lied to her – both about being married the first time, and about the true nature of his and Angela's relationship – plus, she kind of enjoyed being the one to mess with him for a change.

This slightly morose Jane was much easier to deal with than when they had been together. He didn't seem to have the energy to make her life hell as much as he used to, and although he'd cheered up a bit after ascertaining that her date hadn't actually gone well, he hadn't yet started trying to persuade her to talk about _them_ again.

Lisbon even started to wonder whether or not she should just leave their relationship as it was now. Getting involved in a more intimate relationship again didn't bode particularly well professionally, and she had a feeling that no life with Patrick Jane in it could run smoothly. However, she had found the past few weeks that she actually _missed_ him. Not just in the intimate sense (although good god she did), but just him being _him_ : their banter, his wild schemes, his random acts of kindness…everything that made him Jane. Sure, she could have most of that back if they were just good friends…but would she really be able to cope, when she would always want that little bit more?

A ringing phone forced Lisbon to jump back into reality. Thankfully, it was only Cho calling to update her on what they had managed to get from the latest suspect in one of their cases. Apparently he had a solid alibi. _One down, seven to go_ Lisbon thought to herself.

"Hey, Lisbon?"

Carlson from missing persons stuck his head around the door.

"Yeah?"

"Is Jane around? I wondered if we would be able to borrow him for an hour or two, we're on the edge of a breakthrough with a case and he might be able to shed some light on it. Minelli said he's fine with it if you are"

"We do have a couple of open cases…but I guess it wouldn't hurt for him to branch out a bit"

"That's what I thought" Carlson grinned.

"Was he not in the bullpen?"

"Nope"

"He might have gone to get a snack" Lisbon said, rolling her eyes "he does have a tendency to disappear from time to time"

"Duly noted" Carlson nodded "send him up when you manage to locate him"

"Will do" 

"Thanks Lisbon, I owe you one"

"It'll be Jane you owe" she pointed out "or maybe I owe you for giving me a break from him for a bit"

"Is he really that bad?" Carlson asked, looking a little concerned.

"Not really. But don't let him start a game of cards with you. Or place any bets" she warned.

"I'll keep it in mind" Carlson chuckled "see you around, Lisbon"

"You too"

Jane arrived back at the CBI about 10 minutes later, handing Lisbon a cup of coffee from her favourite café. He noted with a slight smile that she actually took a sip of it, instead of pouring it away like she had been doing recently.

"Jane, they want you in missing persons" she told him "Minelli ordered it"

Technically Minelli hadn't _ordered_ it, but semantics weren't a crime. Well not often, anyway.

"Missing persons? That'll be a nice change of pace" Jane said with more energy than she had expected "now?"

"They're waiting for you"

"I'll head up then. See you later, Teresa"

"Bye" Lisbon said as he walked away, frowning a little at his address of her.

oooooooooooooooooooo

Jane actually ended up helping missing persons with their case for three days, only coming back to serious crimes midway through the next week. Although she wouldn't admit it to him, Lisbon was ever so slightly relieved when they finally found their victim (alive, thankfully) and Jane returned to his normal place on the couch in the bullpen.

"You look lovely today, Grace" Jane commented as she walked into the bullpen that morning "have you got something on?"

"I'm meeting a friend for lunch" Van Pelt smiled at him.

"Ah, how nice"

"That's cool, nice" Rigsby joined in, earning himself a slightly odd glance from her

"an old friend?"

"From college" she shrugged "he's in the area for a few days on business. It was odd actually; I haven't spoken to him for ages"

"I wonder what he wants" Rigsby commented.

"Lunch probably" Cho pointed out.

"You'd like him actually, Wayne" Van Pelt said "he's kind of similar to you. Or he used to be anyway, although I don't think he's changed that much"

"Huh, cool" Rigsby nodded.

"Is Lisbon around? I think I may have a break in that horrible Wringer case"

"I think she's in her office"

"Ok, thanks" Van Pelt smiled at him and then wandered off towards Lisbon's office.

"Smooth, dude" Cho muttered.

"What?"

"Oh come on, you were trying to work out if this is just a lunch or if it's a date"

"No I wasn't" Rigsby said quickly "I just like taking an interest in my friends' lives"

"You're not fooling anyone"

"Jane? Back me up on this"

"Definitely trying to work out if it was more than just a lunch" Jane agreed without looking up from the file he was looking over.

"Ok fine, maybe I was interested" Rigsby admitted "but she only broke up with that tall guy a few weeks ago, and they were engaged. It just seems a bit…I dunno, soon…to be dating again. I don't want her to get hurt again"

"Nope" Jane said quickly "you're wondering if she'd go for dinner with you if she's ready to date again"

"You're way off, man"

Jane shrugged, clearly not that bothered.

"Although it is a bit insulting that this guy is 'kind of similar' to me" Rigsby muttered "I mean if 'kind of similar' is ok, then what's wrong with the real deal?"

"Oh I'm sure she would" Jane agreed "she's just waiting for you to ask"

"No way" Rigsby shook his head "it's easy for you to say that; you're already married and sorted"

"Hmm" Jane nodded, clearly not comfortable with where this conversation was going.

"I mean you are, aren't you?" Rigsby pushed.

"What is it you're trying to say, Rigsby?" Jane asked eventually, putting the case down on his lap and sighing.

"Just that…we know what happened between you and Lisbon, and your wife…does she…I mean were you…" Rigsby stuttered, feeling very uncomfortable under Jane's gaze.

"Ex-wife" Jane said, looking down at his lap "or she will be soon"

"Oh, I'm sorry" Rigsby mumbled.

"Don't be" Jane said quickly "but in answer to the question you couldn't quite bring yourself to ask: no, I wasn't cheating on her with Lisbon"

"Right, good" Rigsby nodded.

They fell silent, with Rigsby glancing awkwardly between the other two until Lisbon and Van Pelt appeared out of her office.

"Cho? Van Pelt thinks there could be a gang link with the Wringer case, I want the two of you to go back to the family" Lisbon told him.

"Ok" Cho nodded, standing up "let's go"

"We're looking for any connection whatsoever" Lisbon said "it's getting embarrassing: we've had this case for over a month now, and all we've got is an ID on the victim"

"I have a feeling that we're going to get this case solved within a week" Jane said suddenly.

"Well I'm glad someone is confident" Lisbon muttered.

oooooooooooooooooooo

"Jane" Lisbon barked at him "My office. Now"

Jane pushed himself off the couch and stretched, yawning.

"Jane" Lisbon warned "get in there"

Jane shrugged at the rest of the team as if to say 'what's her problem?', and then followed Lisbon calmly into her office.

"Jeez, I wonder what he managed to do this time" Van Pelt muttered.

"What did you think you were doing?" Lisbon demanded the moment the door was shut and the blinds down to stop the rest of the floor seeing her yelling at him "breaking into a suspect's house? Are you crazy?"

"Not as far as I'm aware" Jane said calmly, sitting down on her couch and crossing his legs.

"You know perfectly well you can't just _do_ stuff like that. Minelli is beyond mad; if the media managed to get hold of this we would be in massive trouble. You'll be fired, I'll probably be fired, the Bureau will be in-"

"Oh relax, Lisbon. The media won't find out"

"How do you know that?" she demanded "you're not actually psychic – as much as you like to con people into thinking you are"

"Really Lisbon? You're gonna hit me with that?" Jane looked a little hurt "I stopped all of that months ago. Besides, the bureau isn't going to let the media find out and the suspect definitely doesn't want anyone knowing. Therefore it's fine"

"It's not fine!" she nearly shouted. Jane's eyes widened a little in surprise "you're so far past the line you can't even see it! You shouldn't break into suspect's houses or hypnotise people or god knows what else you do, but you seem utterly incapable of following any rule or regulation because apparently Patrick Jane is some godlike creature who lives above the law!"

Lisbon was nearly screaming by the time she finished, and now she stood in front of him breathing slightly more heavily, her face tinged red with anger.

"Lisbon" Jane said softly "I'm sorry, maybe I shouldn't have-"

"Maybe?!" Lisbon laughed, a dangerous glint in her eye "maybe you shouldn't have?!"

"Ok, I _definitely_ shouldn't have done it" he conceded "but I solved us the case didn't I?"

"And all of the evidence could very easily be inadmissible in court if anyone found out, meaning that our violent killer would be free to walk. Did you ever stop and think about that?"

"That won't happen, because nobody is going to find out"

"That's beside the point" she yelled "you shouldn't have done it. And you don't seem to be able to get that into your stupid head"

"Why don't you just take a deep breath and calm down?"

"Are you joking? How can I calm down when I have a consultant who won't follow a single rule? How can I even work with you any longer?"

"I'm sorry" Jane said quietly.

"What was that?" Lisbon demanded.

"I said I'm sorry" he repeatedly more loudly "and I mean it. You're right; I shouldn't have done it. It was stupid"

"Thank you" Lisbon said after a few moments "It's still not ok and we could still get into a lot of trouble over it…but thank you for apologising"

"You won't get into trouble over it"

"Jane…"

"You won't. I'll make sure of it"

"Don't promise something you can't do" Lisbon glared at him "now get out. And don't do anything else stupid"

"Lisbon" Jane stood up and stepped towards her "I…never mind. See you later" 

"I'm still annoyed at you" she called after him.

"What did you do this time?" Van Pelt asked as Jane returned to his couch.

Even with the door shut they had still heard Lisbon's raised voice, just not enough to work out what she was saying.

"Oh nothing" Jane said, coming to stand by her desk "just a disagreement over technique"

"Really?" Van Pelt raised her eyebrows "It sounded like more than that"

"You know what Lisbon's like" he shrugged "a stickler for the rules"

"She is a cop" Van Pelt pointed out.

"Is this the store footage?" Jane asked, changing to subject to their latest case.

"Yup, I'm just looking through it. I haven't found anything yet, though"

"Hmmmm" Jane nodded "I might have an idea"

"Are you going to share it with anyone this time?"

"Not yet. It's still growing"

"Whatever" Van Pelt rolled her eyes and turned back to her work.

"Oh by the way, how was your date last week? With that college friend?" Jane asked as he walked away.

Rigsby looked up from his desk and looked carefully at Van Pelt.

"Date?" she snorted "that wasn't a date"

"I'm just saying" Jane held his hands up in surrender "any guy going for lunch with a beautiful woman would be happy to call it a date"

"Unless he's gay" Van Pelt pointed out "like Dave is"

The corners of Rigsby's lips turned a little, a movement not missed by Jane.

"Fair dos" Jane shrugged, sitting back on his couch.

"I'm going to talk to Lisbon" Van Pelt said, as she stood up.

"There you go Rigsby, the path is clear" Jane said the moment she was out of earshot.

"The path is clear?" Rigsby repeated "do you not remember Grace likening me to this friend? She thinks I'm gay!"

"There's nothing wrong with being gay" Cho pointed out.

"I know, but the point is that I'm not" Rigsby reminded him.

"She doesn't think you're gay, anyway" Cho said.

"Sure" Rigsby muttered, slumping down in his seat slightly "I'm starving, I'm gonna go down to the cart. Does anyone else want a baguette?"

oooooooooooooooooooo

3 weeks later they finally managed to solve the case which had been hanging over them for nearly 2 months. Lisbon had to hand it to Jane; he had come up with his most impressive plan yet without managing to piss anyone off too badly – except the killer. It nearly made up for Minelli shouting at her on a weekly basis for whatever he had done.

"I hope that's the last time I have to stare at a corpse which has been mutilated quite that badly" Lisbon commented as she took down the information from the board in the bullpen.

"I doubt it" Jane said, coming to stand next to her "has anyone ordered pizza?"

"No. It's your turn to pay" Lisbon told him, putting the last of the photos in a pile on the table "2 pepperoni and 1 margarita"

"I paid last time. It's your turn"

"No it isn't" Lisbon narrowed her eyes at him "don't start doing reverse psychology or whatever it is you do on me"

"I'm not _doing_ anything" Jane protested "I paid last time"

"Cho, who's turn is it to buy case closed pizza?"

"Jane" Cho replied without turning round.

"Told you" Lisbon said smugly "nice try"

"Shouldn't we have something healthy for a change? All this pizza can't be good for your cholesterol"

Jane dug his phone out of his pocket and typed in the number.

"My cholesterol is perfectly fine thank you" Lisbon said, wiping the writing off the whiteboard "just order the damn pizza. I'm hungry"

"It'll be your funeral" Jane muttered, earning himself a glare as Lisbon stomped off to her office "Hello, I'd like to order some pizza"

"Cho, I'm gonna go for it tonight" Rigsby said once everyone else was out of earshot.

"Go for what?" Cho turned round to face him.

"Grace. I'm gonna ask her out"

"Are you sure about that? What if she says no?"

"Then I won't book a table for dinner" Rigsby pointed out "it's only a matter of time before she starts seeing someone else. I'd rather regret something I did than something I couldn't find the courage for"

"If you say so" Cho shrugged, turning back to his desk.

"Do you think it's a bad idea?"

"What's a bad idea?" Lisbon asked, coming back into the bullpen to catch Rigsby's last sentence "Has Jane ordered that pizza yet?"

"Twenty minutes" Jane announced "and Rigsby; I think you should go for it"

"Go for what?" Lisbon frowned at him.

"Oh nothing"

"What is it?" Lisbon looked carefully at Rigsby "he's not manipulating you into doing something is he?"

"No manipulation needed" Jane shook his head "I need tea. Does anyone else want a drink?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Thanks for the reviews! I really appreciate that people are taking the time to read - let alone review - my stories!**

Rigsby stomped into the bullpen the following morning, dropping his things onto his chair with more force than necessary.

"You ok?" Cho asked him.

"Fine" Rigsby said curtly, moving his bag to the floor to slump into his seat.

"Van Pelt said no last night?"

"Pretty much"

"That sucks"

"Yup" Rigsby sighed "Can't blame a man for trying I guess. I just hope things aren't awkward between us"

"I'm sorry man" Cho said, turning back to reading through his latest emails.

"It's ok" he shrugged.

"Hi guys" Van Pelt arrived a few minutes later, a card box in her hand "I brought some pastries…you know, it's Friday and all"

"Oh uh…thanks" Rigsby nodded.

"You're welcome" she grinned at him "I got those almond croissants; they're your favourites right?"

"Yeah, they are" Rigsby agreed, frowning a little as he took one from the box she offered "thanks"

"I'm gonna go see if the Boss wants one" she said, after offering the box to Cho.

"Cool" Rigsby nodded "what's with that?" he demanded the moment the coast was clear.

"With what?"

"Grace. You know, 'I got your favourite croissants'"

"It's just a pastry. You're over thinking it"

"But she rejected me. You don't reject someone and then buy them one of their favourite snacks" Rigsby mused.

"What exactly did she say when you asked?"

"Something about just having got out of a relationship and not being ready yet" he shrugged "she just let me down gently. And then she gave me this weird look and sighed"

"Maybe she really is just not ready" Cho pointed out.

"But then why the croissant?"

"Maybe it's just a croissant. She got them for everyone else as well"

"But she got _my_ favourite ones. Surely that's got to say something?"

"That they're a popular croissant flavour?"

"Huh" Rigsby nodded "maybe"

"Alright, who wants to go talk to the husband?" Lisbon asked, walking out of her office with a pain au chocolat in hand.

"Uh not me" Van Pelt said quickly as she sat back down at her desk "that guy was a creep"

"Is Jane here yet? He might be able to get something from him" Lisbon asked "he was a creep though"

"I haven't seen him" Rigsby said "he's probably late again"

"It's nearly 9; he should be here by now. Can one of you get hold of him and tell him to meet you at the husband's house?"

"Rigsby" Cho said quickly "I had to go talk to that woman last week who kept trying to marry me off"

"Oh come on, I had to do the dumpsters last time" Rigsby whinged "I don't want to talk to Mr Creepy either"

"Tough luck Rigsby" Lisbon shrugged "tell me when you've talked to Jane"

She wandered off in the direction of the kitchen to get herself another cup of coffee. One just wasn't enough when she'd come in early to work on the files from the case they had closed the previous day.

oooooooooooooooooooo

A few days later, Lisbon noticed that every time she looked at him Jane seemed to have been watching her. She ignored it the first couple of times but when she caught him very definitely staring at her face with an intrigued look on his face as she microwaved her lunch, she decided to act.

"Ok, what's up?" she demanded.

"Nothing" he shrugged, taking a sip of his tea.

"You've been looking at me weirdly for days. Something is up" she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Something's different with you" he admitted "you seem lighter…happier"

"And that's bad why?" she raised her eyebrows.

"I never said it was bad; it suits you. I'm just trying to work out why"

"Well nothing has changed" she said, taking the pot out of the microwave oven and tipping the contents into a bowl.

"Nothing tangible, no" he agreed "but something is different"

"First I've heard of it"

"Hmmm" he nodded "you doing anything tonight?"

"No…" Lisbon said slowly, after staring at him for a few seconds "why?"

"Just wondering" he tipped the last of his tea into his mouth and then put the cup and saucer in the sink.

"Hey" Lisbon said just as he was about to leave the kitchen "you gonna wash that up?"

"I'll do it later"

"You'll do it now. All you're going to do is go lie on your couch anyway"

"Does it make any difference if I wash it up now or in 15 minutes?" Jane asked.

"It's nicer for everyone else" Lisbon pointed out.

"Nobody's gonna mind a harmless little tea cup. Your food is getting cold"

Lisbon sighed and grabbed a fork from the drawer as Jane left. She couldn't be bothered to fight with him right now; she was in a good mood, and she didn't want anyone to ruin it.

Jane watched her head back to her office to eat her lunch, and then snuck back into the kitchen to wash up his cup and put it away. As much as he enjoyed winding Lisbon up, it wasn't right to leave an unwashed cup lying around in everyone else's way.

oooooooooooooooooooo

Lisbon had no idea what had brought on her good mood. Maybe it was the fact that they had finally managed to solve that horrible case, or maybe it was that she had had a relaxing weekend with no callouts or dead bodies for once in a while, or the after-effects of that long bubble bath she'd had on Sunday night with a glass of wine and a book, or that she'd talked with her brother and his fiancée for an hour last night and was excited for their wedding…whatever it was, she wasn't going to question it. She felt good.

"Hey"

Jane was leant against the doorframe, watching her as she read through the case file for the last time before sending it off. Hopefully he wasn't just about to ruin her good mood.

"What do you want?"

"I have a table at The Firehouse for tonight. Do you want to come?"

"You mean you booked a table with the intention of asking me?" Lisbon said. She knew what Jane was like.

"Semantics" he shrugged.

"Why are you asking me anyway?"

"Well it seems a little sad to go by myself. Especially when I have a table for two"

"Why not take, oh I don't know, your wife?"

"I don't have a wife"

"Don't start this again"

Even though Lisbon knew perfectly well that Jane's divorce was all but finalised, she was interested to see whether or not he would say anything about it. As of yet he hadn't thought to mention to her that he was actually getting a divorce.

"I'm not starting anything" he said calmly "as you well know, I am no longer married"

Lisbon looked at him very carefully for a few seconds. He looked as calm and controlled as ever, leaning on his shoulder against the frame with one leg crossed over the other. Obviously he knew that she knew.

"So you know Angela came to see me" she muttered after a moment.

"To be honest I'm quite surprised you managed to hide it from me for so long"

"What gave it away?"

"You started calling me more offensive names" he shrugged "you're too nice a person to do that genuinely, so I knew something had to have changed. Angela broke almost the moment I asked her"

"Damn niceness" Lisbon muttered, looking down at the desk.

She wasn't really sure what to do now. Any residual anger she had at Jane had long since vanished, and he knew that perfectly well. She had kept from making a decision about what to do with their relationship the past few weeks, but she couldn't hide from that any longer.

"So, dinner?"

"Are you sure this is such a good idea? We still work together, and we both know how things turned out in the past"

"There was a misunderstanding there, which is all sorted now" he said, stepping away from the door and closing it behind him "and as for working together; we're both perfectly capable of acting like professionals. It's just dinner, nothing more"

"I'm not so sure" she murmured.

"Come on Teresa. Think of it as an apology it if makes you feel better"

"For what exactly? If you're starting apologies, one dinner is not nearly going to cover it. I'm still trying to sort out that mess from last week"

"Fine then, we'll do more apology dinners" he grinned "once a week for…what, 3 months ought to cover it?"

Lisbon racked her brain for more excuses. It was suddenly suspiciously empty.

"Fine" she conceded eventually "I'll come to dinner"

"Great" he grinned widely "I'll pick you up at 8. Wear something dressy"

"Don't make me regret it already" she warned him "has Cho left already?"

"He's not in the bullpen" Jane peered through the blinds to look.

"Damn" she muttered "I'll have to call him"

oooooooooooooooooooo

Lisbon spent ages trying to work out what to wear that evening. The restaurant Jane had chosen wasn't really the sort of place you could wear jeans and a nice top (her usual dinner date outfit) but she didn't really want to wear any of her dresses because they gave too much of a 'date' look – something she was trying to avoid.

In the end she settled on a long sleeved, tight fitting dress in dark green, which she was slightly embarrassed to find still had the label on. It ended halfway down her thigh, and the neckline was well within the realms of professional. She also dug around the bottom of her closet to find a small black bag which she could fit both a purse and a gun in (because you could never be too sure when out with Jane). Then she stood in front of the mirror and looked carefully at her reflection.

She was very aware that they could bump into someone they knew through the CBI, and she was pleased to see that nothing about her outfit seemed to shout 'date' too much. She'd done a little with her hair and makeup, but no more than she did on a good day at work. All in all, her appearance was a success. Now all she had to do now was to wait for Jane.

"Wow" Jane said when she opened her door at five to eight "you look amazing"

"Is it ok?" Lisbon asked, tugging the dress down a little "you said dressy"

"Beautiful" he reassured her "really stunning"

"Thanks" she murmured, a little embarrassed "shall we go?"

It took 20 minutes to drive to the restaurant and find a place to park. The journey was mostly in a comfortable silence, with only a few occasional mutterings from Lisbon about Jane's driving style. When they arrived at the restaurant Jane opened Lisbon's door and made a thing of helping her out, which she allowed him to do after reminding him that she was carrying a gun and _would_ use it on him if necessary.

"Table for two under the name Jane" he told the waiter who met them at the door.

"When did you book this?" Lisbon demanded, noticing that the restaurant was already busy "I swear you usually have to make reservations weeks in advance"

"Today" he insisted "the owner used to be a client of mine" he added in a whisper.

"Oh course he did"

"She" Jane corrected her "funnily enough, I never had many male clients"

"Your charm doesn't have quite the same effect on them"

"But it does on women?" Jane asked.

"Some women, it seems" Lisbon replied "I have no idea why"

"Sure" he smirked.

They followed the waiter over to their table and sat down, and then started looking over the menus.

"Have you been here before?" Lisbon asked, a little worried at the fact that none of the dishes had any prices. Well, if Jane had asked her out then she assumed he would be paying for her as well.

"A couple of times. The oysters are nice" he recommended "or the steak"

"Hmmm" Lisbon nodded "I'll probably have the steak"

"Would you like any drinks?" the waiter appeared at the table, a pad in hand.

"A glass of white wine, please" Lisbon said.

"Make that two" Jane added.

A few minutes later they had chosen and ordered their food, and were sitting sipping on their glasses of wine.

"Come on, you've got to admit that this is nice" Jane told her, poking a cocktail stick into an olive and picking it up.

"It's ok" Lisbon shrugged "so is the pizza place on my street"

"Ever the Chicago girl" Jane mused.

"Ok, this is slightly nicer than the pizza place" Lisbon conceded "less…sticky looking. And the waiters don't seem to be staring down my top as they walk past"

"I wouldn't blame them if they did"

Lisbon shot Jane a glare and then looked back down at her menu.

"Olive?" Jane held out the cocktail stick.

"Go on" Lisbon held out her hand to take it from him.

"Nah uh" Jane shook his head and smiled at her, waggling the olive in front of her.

"Oh come on, I can eat the olive myself. I thought this was an apology dinner, not a humiliate me dinner"

"Just lean forward"

Lisbon rolled her eyes but leant forward so that Jane could feed her the olive. She was relieved to find it was pitted.

"See?" he asked, taking another sip of wine and popping an olive into his own mouth.

"You are so cliché" she muttered.

"Is there anything wrong with that? I know there's some part of you buried deep inside who wants all that cheesy Romance"

"You're way off" she murmured, looking through her menu.

"Hmmm" Jane looked unconvinced.

"So tell me" she leant forward, a mischievous glint in her eye "what's going on with that couple over there?"

"The one where the woman has forgotten to put her dress on and looks like she's on a date with her father in law?" he asked, and she sorted quietly "surprisingly, that's true love. Age isn't everything"

"Even a 50 year age gap?" Lisbon said, looking unconvinced.

"It happens" he said nonchalantly "I'm not one to judge"

"That doesn't look like true love to me" Lisbon commented "it looks a little…awkward"

"Because they're both worrying what other people think about them" Jane explained "with good reason, too"

"Alright" Lisbon looked down at the table "anyone you care to analyse who won't make me feel guilty?"

"Those two in the corner" Jane titled his head towards them "what do you think?"

Lisbon turned discretely to get a quick look.

"Now they look like they really are in love"

"Look closer"

Lisbon tried to sneak another peek, but her view was partially blocked by a waiter serving another table.

"They're both cheating on one another" Jane told her.

"No way" Lisbon shook her head "they're basically making out across the table"

"But look at their feet; their torsos and faces may be near, but their feet couldn't be further from each other. The truth is always in the feet, Lisbon"

Lisbon looked once more, noting this time that their feet were in fact turned away from each other.

"Maybe there's a little distance there" she conceded "but how can you know that they're both cheating on each other?"

"The closeness in their top halves is too obvious, too loud" Jane explained "so it's faked, and equally on both sides. They've made a little too much effort to look like a perfect couple, but when you look closely it's clear that they're far from that. Both are trying to hide their affair from the other, which is why they're over the top in their affection. Plus, he just checked out the woman who walked past – definitely cheating"

"Alright, show off" Lisbon rolled her eyes at him, taking a sip of her wine.

"You asked" he reminded her.

oooooooooooooooooooo

"Dessert?" Jane asked as Lisbon put down her fork with a satisfied sigh.

"I don't think I can eat another mouthful"

"Oh come on, the chocolate torte is really good" he smiled hopefully at her.

"Are you trying to fatten me up?" Lisbon narrowed her eyes at him.

"There's nothing remotely fat about you. Plus, one little bit of dessert is hardly going to do anything"

"Are you getting anything?" Lisbon asked the change the subject a little.

"I'm still a little peckish" Jane patted his stomach "excuse me, could we have the dessert menu?"

The waiter, who had been passing, smiled at him and went to find the menu.

"Even the men fawn over you" Lisbon muttered.

"Apparently I just am irresistible" he said smugly "I know you think so"

"Please" Lisbon snorted "you're very easy to resist"

"Lie to me all you want, but lying to yourself too? Really Lisbon?"

"You know, I think I'll have the Crème Brulée actually" Lisbon decided after quickly perusing the menu "I'll just have to run a bit further this weekend"

"I'm sure you could find another way to burn off extra calories" Jane said quietly.

Lisbon shot him a glare, but didn't say anything in response. The waiter returned to take their dessert orders not long after, and then Lisbon and Jane were left alone again. It was getting later, and the other patrons were slowly paying their bills and leaving around them.

Jane reached across the table and placed his hand on Lisbon's, caressing the soft skin gently with his thumb. Lisbon raised an eyebrow in surprise at his gesture, but didn't move her hand away.

"You look really pretty tonight" he said softly "not that you don't always. But especially so this evening"

"Thanks" she murmured as she moved her hand so that her fingers were entwined with his, very aware of how couple-y they looked "you don't look too bad yourself"

They fell silent until their dessert arrived, with Jane tracing patterns over the back of Lisbon's hand and taking in every detail of her face whilst she shot him timid smiles. The whole time Lisbon was very aware that her feet were practically touching Jane's brown shoes, and the potential meaning of it.

It was nearly 11 when Jane's car pulled up outside Lisbon's apartment building. He killed the engine, and then got out as she did. _Was he just planning on inviting himself up?_ Lisbon asked herself.

They walked up the stairs in silence, and then stopped outside Lisbon's apartment door as she found her keys.

"I actually had a really nice evening, thank you" she smiled at him, pushing the key into the door "do you want to come in for a cup of tea?"

"I'd love to, but I can't"

"Oh, ok" Lisbon tried not to look slightly hurt.

"Teresa" he said softly, sliding his hand down her arm to take her hand "we both know that if I step through that door, I won't be able to stop myself"

"Did I say I wanted you to?"

Her voice was low and soft. The look in her eye as she stared up at him, daring him to deny her, was almost too much for Jane to take.

"I can't" he repeated "we shouldn't"

"Maybe not" Lisbon twisted the key round and pushed the door open a little.

"Night Teresa" he leant in slowly and pressed a kiss to her cheek "same time next week?"

"What for?"

"Apology dinner number 2" he grinned, stepping back and releasing her hand.

"We'll see, shall we?" she smiled back at him "Night Ja…Patrick"

Once Jane had left and the door was safely closed and locked behind her, Lisbon kicked her shoes off and sank into her couch. She was both berating and congratulating herself on not having made more effort to invite him in. On one hand, she knew for a fact that the sex would have been both inevitable and incredible (and especially since it was a luxury she hadn't allowed herself for months now), but on the other she knew that sleeping together too soon was partially what had caused problems the last time.

She wasn't feeling tired in the slightest, so she flicked the television on to try and distract her from her slight frustration at not being in bed with Jane right this minute.

oooooooooooooooooooo

Lisbon awoke a few minutes before her alarm went off the following morning. She showered and made herself a coffee, and then set about getting ready for the day. Still in a good mood, she decided to wear one of her nicer blouses and a pair of pants which she knew hugged her legs. She blow-dried her hair and then curled it slightly, before applying a light layer of makeup. She was definitely not trying to impress Jane, she told herself repeatedly. She just wanted to make a bit more effort for a change.

She arrived at work a little later than normal, but it didn't bother her. None of their cases were particularly pressing, would it really matter if she wasn't there at 8 on the dot?

The rest of her team, excluding Jane, were already sitting around in the bullpen.

"Morning" she smiled widely at them as she made her way to her office.

"Ok, she had a date last night and she definitely got laid" Rigsby muttered.

"Wayne!" Van Pelt looked that he would talk about their boss like that.

"Oh come on, look at her. Plus I know she left early yesterday"

Van Pelt peered over at Lisbon's office, where she was still smiling to herself as she logged onto her computer to check any new emails.

"Maybe…" Van Pelt conceded "but she's still our boss, you shouldn't say things like that"

"Yeah, it's weird" Cho agreed.

Rigsby looked a little sheepish and quickly picked up a file to read.

When Jane arrived, about 20 minutes later, he went straight to Lisbon's office.

"Hey" he greeted her, closing the door behind him.

"Hey yourself" she smiled at him.

"You're in a good mood"

"I slept well"

He took a seat on her couch and watched her writing something in a file, a small smile playing across his face.

"You're staring at me again" she said, without looking away up.

"You're very beautiful. I can't help it"

"Jane…"

"What? Your hair looks really nice down, with the little…curls"

"Come on, we're meant to be at work"

"Did I say anything unprofessional?"

"Not yet" she muttered.

"Are you free at lunch?"

"I need to get over to the Capitol actually" she sighed "budget meeting"

"That sucks" Jane's face fell a little "there's a really nice café a couple of streets away"

"Maybe another time"

"What about this evening?"

"What about it?" she closed the file and then stood up to put it away.

"We could do something" he suggested.

"We had dinner last night" she reminded him.

"And I want to see you again. Outside of work"

Lisbon was quiet for a few minutes as she looked through the filing cabinet for the right place.

"What about takeout and a film at mine?" she asked "I know it's not as glamorous as you'd like, but it could be fun"

"That sounds perfect" Jane's face perked up immediately.

"Jane…" Lisbon paused, searching for the words "what are we doing?"

"You're looking over the things for your budget meeting, I'm watching you"

"You know what I mean. What _are_ we?"

"We're two people who enjoy spending time together, I hope. Why do you need to put a label on it?"

"Because…I don't know"

"Teresa" Jane stood up and came to stand in front of her desk "you're over thinking it. It was just a nice dinner, not a marriage agreement or anything like that, just dinner. We don't need to label it"

Lisbon paled a little at the mention of marriage, but then put her pen down and sighed.

"Maybe you're right"

"Of course I'm right. So I'll be at yours for 7 tonight?"

"Sure" she nodded.


	9. Chapter 9

**I am so sorry it's taken me nearly 3 months to get this chapter up! It's been sitting 90% completed on my laptop, and my life has just been crazy busy with moving house, working abroad and suddenly losing a close family member**

 **I hope you enjoy it, there's probably one more to go after this!**

 **Thanks again for the lovely reviews**

Lisbon yawned, as the words swam in front of her eyes yet again. Normally she didn't mind doing the case closed paperwork (as dull as it was), but this stack of pages seemed to be never-ending.

"You ready?" Jane's head appeared at her door.

"For what?"

"Dinner"

"What dinner?"

"It was you that I organised this with two days ago, wasn't it?"

"Sorry" Lisbon stifled a yawn "I remember now"

"Good, so can we go?"

"I really need to get this in tonight" Lisbon said, biting her lip.

"How long will it take?"

"Less than an hour hopefully"

"Then I'll go and get started on the food, you can catch me up"

"Thank you" Lisbon said gratefully "sorry about this"

"You just need to relax a bit" Jane said, walking to stand behind her "you're too tense"

Lisbon jumped a little when Jane's hands first came into contact with her back, but then relaxed as he started to massage her shoulders.

"Jane…" she warned, worried that this would soon turn into more than just a massage.

There was a slight jingling noise and Jane stood up suddenly behind her.

"What have you done?" she frowned.

He held up her apartment key and grinned.

"Well I can't cook the Michelin Star worthy dinner I promised you from my hotel room can I?"

"I thought you said you had an apartment sorted?"

"And I can't move in for another two weeks" he reminded her.

"Maybe you could wait here until I've finished and we can go together, or we could reorganise this for another night" Lisbon suggested.

"You don't want me in your apartment when you're not there" Jane smiled "I'm not going to look through your lingerie or whatever it is you're worrying about"

"It's not _that_ " Lisbon told him "it's just…I don't know"

"I promise you, I won't do anything bad. I only want to use your kitchen"

Lisbon thought carefully for moment, and then relented.

"Fine" she nodded "but don't touch anything outside of the kitchen"

"Not even the front door? Or the carpet?"

"You know what I mean"

"See you later" Jane said, leaning down to kiss the top of her head "don't fall asleep"

"Trust me, I'll get through this much more quickly now I know you'll be wandering around my apartment" Lisbon said dryly.

oooooooooooooooooooo

Lisbon decided that it felt very weird to be knocking on her own apartment door. It was even weirder when Jane opened the door to let her in, wearing _her_ apron.

"This smells good" Lisbon commented, quickly checking her living room to see if everything was still in place.

"My famous Spaghetti Bolognese" Jane announced.

"Famous?" Lisbon snorted.

"In certain circles" he shrugged "beer?"

"God yes"

A few minutes later and Lisbon was comfortably settled on one of the stools at her breakfast bar with a cool beer in hand, watching Jane stir a large pot of Bolognese.

"…and I don't know what he was expecting me to say. It was one of the most awkward experiences of my life"

"I think you've fared pretty well if that comes up top of you most awkward moments"

"Did you not just hear that?" Lisbon asked "the banana? The hamster? How could it have been any more awkward?"

"I had a few back when I was starting out as a psychic. There was one reading, with this elderly woman down in LA when…"

Lisbon sipped on her beer and laughed at Jane's stories until the food was done, and then they ate in a comfortable silence before moving to the couch to share a tub of ice cream and watch some game show. Everything felt natural, as if they just slotted in together perfectly. This Jane was miles from the one she had first started sleeping with several months ago. He was interesting, funny, a perfect gentleman…in fact his hand was resting on her leg right this minute and he hadn't so much as hinted at moving it anywhere else.

Shooting him a quick smile, Lisbon snuggled into his side and let his arm slide protectively around her waist. Life was good.

oooooooooooooooooooo

The following morning, Lisbon awoke before her alarm went with the last moments of her dream still etched in her mind and a smile tempting the corners of her mouth. She turned over in bed, expecting to see a blond head resting on the pillow beside her, only to find it empty. Patrick Jane wasn't there; in fact the other side of the bed didn't appear to have been slept in at all.

Lisbon turned back and the smile quickly turned into a frown. Of course Jane wouldn't be there, because he hadn't spent the night with her after their dinner last night. Nor had he spent the night after their late night ice creams last week, or the two dinners the week before that - in fact, since they had started seeing each other properly there had been no more than a few kisses between them.

She thought she had made it perfectly clear from that first dinner that she wanted him, and from the way he reacted, she had been pretty sure that the feeling was mutual. Since then however, he hadn't mentioned anything about it. Every time they kissed goodbye and she hinted at more, he promptly shut her down and left. Lisbon just didn't understand what was going on. It couldn't be any anxieties about them actually sleeping together, because god knows they had done it more than enough times in the past. It had now been a date or two too many for it to still be passed off as 'moving too fast'. She had even contemplated the fact that Jane didn't want to sleep with her, but the way he'd spoken after that first dinner went completely against that.

To put it simply, Lisbon wasn't happy in the slightest. She'd let it pass up until now, but she was changing tactics. She would do what it took to get exactly what (or in this case, who) she wanted, and she wasn't planning on stopping until she got it.

Forcing herself out of bed and opening her closet, Lisbon made a private promise to herself that Patrick Jane would be in her bed before the week was over.

ooooooooooooooooo

"Morning"

"Morning Boss"

"Did you get the report back from forensics about the Peterson case?"

"It came in this morning" Van Pelt said "no signs whatsoever that it was anything other than suicide"

"Damn" Lisbon muttered "I was hoping for something to back up Jane's hunch"

"I might have that" Van Pelt shot her a smile "The coroner also found a fairly high blood alcohol reading, which wouldn't normally be suspicious but-"

"The victim was a teetotaller" Lisbon finished "I want you to go and talk to the victim's friends and the waitress at the bar again. Find out for sure if she drank anything there, and then search the apartment for any traces of alcohol. Take Rigsby"

"Ok" Van Pelt looked over at Rigsby and smiled, who in turn looked a little confused and shrugged at Cho.

"Uh Boss?" Van Pelt said as Lisbon began to walk away "you look really nice today"

"Oh…thanks Van Pelt" Lisbon nodded.

Lisbon pushed open her office door and wasn't in the slightest surprised to find Jane sitting on her couch with his legs crossed and a cup of tea in his hand.

"Good morning" she nodded to him, continuing to her desk to put her bag down.

"And it is a good morning it seems" he commented, placing his tea on the table beside him and standing up "is that a new shirt? It looks great on you"

"This? I've had it for years" Lisbon said nonchalantly.

"Yet you've never before worn it to work. Today must be a special day" he took a few steps towards her.

"Nope" she shrugged, sensing that Jane could see through her already (and not just her shirt) "I just felt like a change"

"Then it's most definitely a change I like" Jane decided as he ran his hand lightly down her side, letting it come to rest on her waist.

Lisbon eyed the hand with suspicion, but didn't move at all.

Jane slid his other hand up her neck, tangling the tips of his fingers into her soft hair as he leant in to press a lingering kiss to her cheek. For a few seconds he looked like he was about to ravage her right on her desk, and then he let go of her and stepped away.

"I have a lead on the case to check out"

"Ok" Lisbon murmured, still frozen to the spot.

"See you later" Jane picked up his teacup from the table, and promptly left.

Lisbon slumped into her desk seat with a scowl on her face; this was not going well at all.

ooooooooooooooooo

"Hey Boss, I've got the copies of the documents from the victim's house" Van Pelt said, handing Lisbon a sheaf of papers.

"Great, thanks Van Pelt" Lisbon flicked through them quickly "This should be more than enough for a warrant"

"No problem"

"Uh Grace?" Lisbon asked, an idea suddenly coming into her head "can I ask you for some help with something?"

"Sure" Van Pelt shrugged "a case thing?"

"More of a…personal problem"

"Ok" Van Pelt nodded, perching on the edge of the couch.

"There's this guy I've been seeing" Lisbon began, regretting the idea to ask for help almost the moment she started talking "for a few weeks now, and everything's great but we haven't…well…"

"Exchanged numbers? Kissed?" Van Pelt guessed.

Lisbon paused, searching for the easiest way to say it.

"You know what? Forget I said anything" she decided quickly.

"Are you sure?" Van Pelt asked.

"Yes" Lisbon said quickly "actually I have a call to make, so if you don't mind…"

"No, of course" Van Pelt stood up quickly and headed towards the door "uh Boss? Try a romantic dinner" she winked at Lisbon, and then left.

Lisbon felt the colour flood onto her face as the door closed after Van Pelt. For a few seconds she was mortified at the fact that she had just tried to discuss her sex life with anyone - let alone one of her team - and then she started to think about what Van Pelt had said. Maybe she was going at this the wrong way; instead of waiting for Jane to initiate something, maybe she would have to be the one to start it…

oooooooooooooooooooo

Lisbon rearranged the cutlery on the table for the fourth time, and then she smoothed down her dress and fiddled with a loose tendril of hair. She wasn't sure why she was so nervous about this; it wasn't like it was a first date or that they had never slept together before. She wandered back through to the kitchen and decided that maybe pouring herself a glass of wine would calm her down, even though she had intended to wait until Jane arrived.

At seven o'clock on the dot there was a sharp knock at the door, which Lisbon opened to find Jane standing with his normal relaxed smile.

"Hey"

"Hey you" Lisbon couldn't help but smile back at him "come in"

"I brought wine"

"Oh thanks. I've already opened a bottle actually, do you want a glass?"

"Sure" he shrugged "is this…actual cooking?"

Lisbon rolled her eyes and dug a fork into the rice to test it.

"I didn't know you ate anything other than takeout"

"Oh ha ha" Lisbon said, nudging him out of the way so she could get to the oven "I did salmon by the way"

"Good choice. You look absolutely stunning tonight, that dress…"

"Oh thanks" Lisbon shot him a shy smile.

"Not that you don't always look beautiful"

"Liar. You've seen me after chasing a suspect for half a mile"

"Still beautiful" he insisted, taking a sip of wine "in a hot, sweaty way"

"Is 'hot and sweaty' even a type of beautiful?" Lisbon wrinkled up her nose a little as she pulled a tray out of the oven.

"Definitely. You do it very well"

"I just need to serve this up, do you want to go through and sit down?"

"I can wait"

"It'll only take a minute. You can light the candles"

"Candles? Someone's pulling out all the stops tonight" Jane commented, putting down his wine glass and coming to stand right behind her.

Lisbon continued to spoon rice onto the plates as Jane slid an arm around her waist and pressed a few kisses into her neck.

"What are you doing?" she murmured, putting the spoon down.

"You want me to stop?"

"Did I say that?"

Jane kissed her once more and then stood back.

"We better eat this lovely food before it gets cold. Where are the matches?"

"Second drawer down on the left"

Jane dug around in the drawer for a few seconds and then wandered out of the kitchen to the table, a box of matches in hand. Lisbon let out a happy sigh as she scooped a salmon fillet from the tray and arranged it on a plate. Maybe, just maybe, this would actually work.

oooooooooooooooooooo

"I take everything back" Jane said, stifling a yawn "you are an excellent cook. That" he pointed at the empty plate "was absolutely delicious"

"You should never have doubted me in the first place" Lisbon smirked at him "I just got some ice cream for dessert. I thought we could eat it on the couch?"

"You're the boss" Jane winked at her.

Lisbon tried not to snort at Jane's wink as she cleared the plates up and carried them back through to the kitchen. She was in fact, very pleased with how dinner had gone so far. Jane had actually _moaned_ at one point when he took a bite of food, and he had spent half the time gently nudging her foot with his own in a way which was most definitely not accidental.

When she returned with two bowls of ice cream (which actually appeared to contain chocolate fish), Jane had moved to the sofa.

"More wine?" Lisbon asked, noting his empty glass as she placed the bowls down on the coffee table.

"I shouldn't, I have to drive" he declined.

"You could always stay" Lisbon pointed out, settling into his side and picking up her bowl.

Jane picked up his own bowl of ice cream and took a spoonful. The unanswered suggestion was very telling to Lisbon, who flicked the TV on and tried to prevent a scowl from creeping onto her face.

Once they had both finished eating Jane slid an arm around Lisbon's waist and gently pulled her into his side, pressing a kiss onto the side of her head as he did so. Lisbon turned to smile at him, and Jane surprised her by leaning in to kiss her.

Lisbon decided that the evening had taken a turn for the better as they kissed slowly and gently. She twisted slightly in his arms and reached her free arm around his neck, to play with the hair on its nape. Just as the kiss was becoming more urgent and passionate, Jane pulled away. Lisbon stared questioningly at him for a few seconds before speaking.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, everything's great"

"Then why did you…" she paused, searching for words before deciding to bite the bullet and go for it "It's been over 3 weeks of us properly seeing each other and we haven't slept together yet. Is there something wrong with me?"

"There's nothing wrong with you" he reassured her quickly.

"Then why? It's not like we haven't slept together before"

"You are incredibly special to me, Teresa" he began to explain "I didn't want you to think that this was an extension of what we had before. I needed you to know that this is so much more than just sex"

Lisbon looked at him carefully for a few minutes, and then a smile filled her face.

"Why didn't you just tell me that? I've been worried sick that I was doing something wrong"

"Trust me, you're doing nothing wrong. You've been incredibly difficult to refuse"

"How long exactly were you planning on waiting?" Lisbon asked, picking up her wine glass and taking a long sip "until I full on threw myself at you?"

"I don't think I'd have lasted that long"

"You are so stupid sometimes" she murmured, shaking her head and smiling.

"In hindsight, maybe I am" he smiled back "This was your attempt to seduce me wasn't it?"

"No" Lisbon said quickly.

"Look at you, trying to lie to me. If I didn't have such amazing self control it definitely would have worked"

"You're just saying that to make me feel better"

"I so am not" he insisted, pulling her back into his side "salmon is a massive turn on, you know, and don't get me started on ice cream"

"Shut up" she murmured against his chest. They remained in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, with Jane absentmindedly tracing patterns on Lisbon's arm.

"I guess there was another reason I've been putting it off" Jane said quietly "I've only been in one proper relationship in my life, and we both know how that turned out"

"You're scared?" Lisbon looked up at him and frowned "Patrick Jane doesn't get scared"

"He does around a certain CBI Agent"

"Huh" Lisbon looked pleased "There's no need to be scared. As long as you're good" she shot him a cheeky grin, and then nestled back into his chest with a yawn.

Jane wrapped his free arm around her and kissed the top of her head.

"CBI Agents aren't so scary when they're half asleep you know"

"Planning a romantic dinner is surprisingly tiring" she replied, her voice muffled by Jane's chest.

"What if…I stayed here with you tonight?"

"I think I'd be ok with that" Lisbon said, her smile apparent in her voice.

"Obviously I can stay on the couch, if you'd rather…"

"Come on, I'm not going to force you to sleep on my couch when we both know I have a double bed"

"Lucky me then"

"But no funny business. As it turns out, this evening has been ironically counterproductive"

"I promise, nothing funny"

oooooooooooooooooooo

"Jesus, that's good" Lisbon groaned, closing her eyes in pleasure.

"Patrick, not Jesus"

"Now is so not the time for jokes" Lisbon muttered "not when you're…ahhh"

"Jesus would probably be offended to know that you had confused the two of us" Jane commented, continuing to work the knots and tension out of Lisbon's back.

"He'd get over it" Lisbon sighed.

Jane shuffled off her back and lay down beside her. Lisbon glared at him for a few seconds and then pulled her top down her back and sat up, leaning against the headboard.

"Why did you stop?"

"I need to talk to you, and you were much too distracted"

"Wasn't my fault" she shrugged "about what?"

"The CBI is having a fundraising ball in 2 weeks time"

"I know" Lisbon frowned at him "Minelli is making us all go, before you try and beg your way out of it"

"I wasn't planning on it. I was more thinking…what if we went together?"

"Well the team do tend to-"

"As a couple"

"But then everyone would know about us"

"Yes" Jane said simply.

"Are you sure that's such a good idea?"

"Teresa law-abiding Lisbon, I have read through every single clause of the CBI handbook and not once does it mention anything about a relationship between an Agent and a consultant"

"Minelli would kill me, and it doesn't exactly scream 'professional'"

"Stop looking for excuses"

"I'm not looking for excuses. I'm just being realistic"

Jane looked at her carefully for a few seconds.

"This isn't about professionalism or Minelli, is it?"

"It is" Lisbon protested "completely"

"You think that your 'tough boss' appearance will be in some way compromised if you admit to actually having feelings for someone"

"That's so not true" Lisbon scoffed.

"It's a perfectly valid concern" Jane said, ignoring her denial "although trust me, they all have so much respect for you that they wouldn't care if a sex tape got-"

"What?" Lisbon demanded "Fine, I will consider – but only consider for now – going with you to the CBI fundraiser. Happy?"

"Happy enough" he shrugged.

"What more do you want?"

"Well, if you'd like to join me under your comforter I'll show you"

"Oh" Lisbon raised her eyebrows "now you want _me_ to sleep with you? Funny how things change"

"I thought I made it up to you last night"

"I don't" Lisbon shrugged.

"Then we'd better get going" Jane patted the bed beside him.

"I put together a beautiful meal, complete with candles, and you expect a 'get in here' to persuade me?" Lisbon smirked "I'm a bit peckish, I'm gonna go find a snack"

"Ok fine, maybe that was a little presumptuous" Jane conceded as he entered the kitchen a few minutes later, after he realised that Lisbon really had gone to find some food.

"Apple?" Lisbon waved towards the fruit bowl.

"No thanks"

Lisbon shrugged and took another bite out of hers.

oooooooooooooooooooo

"This is nice" Jane commented.

He and Lisbon were seated at the edge of the park, his arm draped loosely over her shoulders. They'd bought crepes from a vendor on the way and Lisbon was currently struggling to control the Nutella oozing out of hers.

"Are you ever going to come back to me about this fundraising ball?"

Lisbon froze for a second, and then swallowed the last of her mouthful and wiped her mouth with a napkin.

"Do you think…maybe it's too soon?" she said eventually.

"No" Jane said simply.

"We've only been together for-"

"Over a month. And in normal people timelines this would equate to about 6 months worth of relationship"

"How so?" Lisbon frowned at him.

"We saved ourselves about two months of 'dating' and then another two of sorting out what was what in the relationship. And then the final two have been condensed into one because we see each other so often and we're basically living together across both our apartments"

"Ok" Lisbon nodded, still frowning "the other problems still stand: Minelli is not going to be ok with this, my authority will be compromised and my leadership questioned"

"Those problems will still exist whenever we tell people. Why not get it over with?"

Lisbon shrugged, her eyes glued to a dog which was sprinting the entire length of the park.

"You were planning on telling people at some point, right?"

"Of course" Lisbon said quickly "I just didn't realise it would be so soon"

"No time like the present" Jane grinned, reaching his hand out to wipe a missed piece of Nutella from her chin.

"Thanks" Lisbon muttered "you know what? You're right. Let's do this"

"Really?"

"Yep" Lisbon turned and smiled widely at him "I have nothing to be ashamed of"

"There's my feisty scared-of-nothing Agent Lisbon" Jane grinned, leaning to peck her on the lips.

"We should get back" Lisbon said.

"In a minute. There's something I'd like to do first" Jane leant in to kiss her again, lingering a little longer this time.

"Done?" Lisbon smirked at him.

"Nearly" Jane grinned as he went to kiss her a third time.

This time it was passionate and lengthy, and both of them soon forgot that they were sitting in the middle of a park where anyone could have walked past.

"We really should get back now" Lisbon admitted, finally tearing herself away.

"Or we could nip back to my apartment; it's only 10 minutes from here"

"I have work to do Jane" Lisbon sighed, getting to her feet.

"That could wait an hour" Jane pointed out as he reluctantly stood up as well.

"Patrick" she warned "I'm not taking time out of work to…I need to get these reports off. People will start to get suspicious if we keep disappearing for lengthy lunches, anyway"

"They won't do after next week" Jane muttered "we could just put the blinds down in your office, I've always wanted to-"

"Jane" Lisbon warned him again "stop it"


End file.
